Hey guys,

So I have been fighting with my control arms for the past few days now and I am finally reinstalling everything. 10 years on quebec roads makes for a hell of a time to undo all that **** lol.

Anyways I started tightening the front left, lower/front control arm (the one with the sway bar link) onto the knuckle and when it started to get snug the ball joint started to turn a bit as I tightened... Now this control arm faces down into the knuckle so the weight of the knuckle is not really on it right now. I figure the reason its spinning is because there is no weight on it... Either that or the new ball joint is bad... I hope it is not the later because the strut and **** is already back in...

Anyways is there a trick to tightening that nut onto the control arm? Maybe put a jack under the control arm and lift it so as to pinch the ball joint so it wont move?

Thanks guys.

 

jack under the CA. that's what i've always done and it's always worked

 

If youve got a friend with an impact wrench at all, that makes quick easy work of it usually, just spins it right on. Be careful with whatever you end up doing as to not damage the boot.

 

which kit? either follow hiwords' advice or check to see if there is an allen opening on the end of the joint.

 

This is what I did when I replaced mine and worked perfectly.

 

It's the kit from FCP Groton. I'll put a jack under it, thats what I figured you had to do. What a relief though, I was afraid the arm was bad -_-

 

don't worry about being rough with the suspension parts, they are pretty daym solid

 

Another thing you can do is put a couple of jam nuts on there, tighten them against each other (but not against the "main" nut) and have a wrench on one of those while you turn the main nut to tighten it.

 

sorry to resurrect but damn that's a pro tip!

 

or just use the allen hole in the end of the ball joint, designed to do the same thing