ghunt

Well I finally got things wrapped up last night.

Job took way longer than I intended because I ran into some difficulties.

First off, I bought just ball joints, but I honestly can't see how you press them out of the original control arms (it's almost like they're "crimped in" on the bottom). Even with the new control arms, it looked like the ball joints pressed up in from the bottom but there's no good "lip" or anything to press them out from the top. I really don't know.

Anyway-

I ended up taking everything apart because I decided to install my front "P" springs while I was in there. But, I think you would have to take the spindles off to remove them from the ball joints anyway, unless you had access to a lift. The control arms have very little downward travel, you'd almost have to hang off it to pull it down far enough to separate it from the spindle.

Also, my passenger side came apart easy but the driver's side ended up being a huge PITA. I had to wedge a cold chisel in the bottom of the spindle to open it enough to get the ball joint stud out, get it started with a pickle fork, and then STILL use a long punch and a small sledge to finally knock it down out of the spindle.

Also a couple tips and tricks I found online during the job:

-To remove the front control arm bolts, once the tie rods and swaybar are disconnected, if you turn the wheel all the way to the side opposite the one you're working on, you can push the tie rod end up just enough to pull the bolt out.

-If your tie rod boots are split like mine were, you can use polyurethane boots for the '79-04 Mustangs. The original boots are crimped on, but if you cut the crimp with side cutters the whole boot comes right off. There is a small machined "lip" on top of the tie rod boot that the polyurethane ones sit right down over.

As for bolt/nut sizes, for anyone interested:
Tie rod nut, spindle to strut bolts, front control arm bolt, and nut on ball joint pinch bolt are all 18mm
Ball joint pinch bolt head is 15mm
Rear control arm nuts are 21mm. I had to go out and buy a wrench for this one because I didn't have this size.

Something interesting I found was that the tie rod, ball joint, and control arm bolts all use nylon locking nuts. No more castle nuts with cotter pins apparently.

That's about it...overall not terrible, just a little frustrating at times, and time consuming, but what ball joint job isn't...

roegs

Hey...glad to hear you got the job wrapped up. Thanks much for the tips, especially the one about getting the LCA bolt out. I hope to get mine done in the next few weeks. I also will be installing P springs on the front. I did the rears (P springs) about s month ago and really like the look with just the rears, but I'll do the fronts also since I have them.

ghunt

I have had the P springs on the rear for awhile and I thought it needed a touch more drop...after installing the fronts also I definitely think that. The front looks just right, I wouldn't want any more drop than what it has now. If you're wanting a small drop up front like I did you'll like them.

I think I need about a 1.5 or 2" spring out back now though!

EDIT: One thing I forgot, if you don't have one you might consider picking up a 21mm ratcheting wrench for the rear control arm to chassis bolts. A ratchet and socket doesn't fit in there very well!

petrock

If you cut the rubber dust cover off the ball joint you’ll have a nice place to press the ball joints out from. Thats what I had to do on my wifey’s ’98 3.8L.


That is expected. What is holding them up is the control arm bushings twisting due to the pressure on them by the mounting bolt. The torque spec on my wifey’s car for those bolts is upwards of 180 ft/lbs (if memory serves). If you loosen the control arm bolts first the control arm will swing free.

btw, when you bolted everything back up did you tighten the control arm bolts with the wheel hanging in the air or with it at normal/lowered ride height? If the former then your new control arm bushings are probably binding/twisting in the mount which will squeak and cause the bushing to wear out a lot faster. I’d loosen the control arm bolts up, jack the lower control arm up to ride hight, bounce the suspension a couple times to let the control arm bushings reset/settle and then tighten them back down again. Its even easier if you have tall ramps to put the wheels on so the suspension is under proper load when you tighten down the control arm bolts.

Another tip for this is to disconnect the tie rod end from the spindle so you can turn the wheel in/out further to give you better access to the control arm bolts.

Its easier to take a BFH and hit the part of the spindle that the ball joint goes through. The vibration will shock/vibrate the ball joint shaft out in short order. I’ve done it a ton of times. Just be careful not to hit something you didn’t mean to and to take the speed/anti-lock brake sensor off first to avoid damaging it.

Unless you completely disassembled, cleaned and re-greased the tie rod ends before putting new boots on, your tie rods are going to fail sooner then you think. Chances are dirt got into the ball joint through the rip in the old boot. If you didn’t get that dirt out it is going to act like sand paper inside the joint and cause it to fail pretty quickly. I would have just replaced the tie rod ends with a set from MOOG.

Glad to hear you got it done and thanks for the update with all the useful info. I’m sure this post will help someone else looking to do this job on their ride. Enjoy the new stance/handling on your ride…

ghunt

OK, as I said in the other post...you're thinking of the Fox platform. These cars are totally different. The control arms only go on one way because of how the rear bushing mount is designed. If you look at a picture you'll see what I mean. And I'm pretty sure they are sitting about where they do at right height after installation.

For the sake of anyone else that might read this, DO NOT attempt this method of removal on an S197! Yes, it works on the Fox platform since it uses a traditional taper-fit ball joint. But the S197 has a straight stud ball joint that fits into the spindle via a pinch bolt. If you smack this area with a hammer, you will deform the bolt hole and then good luck getting the bolt back in.


Can't be any worse than it was. The ball joints looked fine and felt tight, and still had lots of clean grease in them. I wasn't that worried about it and I didn't feel like buying new tie rod ends right now.

petrock

Your right I was thinking of the Fox design. Sorry about that. However, the front mount for the S197 control arm has a through bolt which should be torqued down to about 129 (per torque specs page on this site). That is a lot of clamping force on that bushing that will easily put the bushing into a bind/twist as the suspension goes up/down if you tighten it down with the suspension hanging.


Yes, again I was thinking about the Fox design.


But I didn’t have a complete brain fart in my earlier post. The other suggestions I made still apply though… :-)

btw, an alternative to renting a C-Clamp style ball joint press from your local auto parts store is to take the control arm off the car and take it to a local mechanic shop to use a hydraulic press to get the ball joints out. Its a lot easier to remove the lower control arm on a S197 then it is a Fox due to the spring being part of the strut, so this is a viable option for you. I had to do this when replacing the ball joints on my Durango last year. Cost about $20 total and 5 minutes of time. The C-Clamp ball joint press didn’t have enough travel to get the ball joint all the way out.

ghunt

I tightened all the control arm bolts before I put the spindle back on the control arm.

petrock

So there was no weight on the suspension when you tightened them up? If so, then the front bushing may be twisting/binding. I’d put the front wheels up on ramps or blocks (so you can get good leverage on the control arm bolt), loosen up the front mounting bolt, bounce the suspension a couple times to let the bushing reset/settle, and then tighten it back up again.

petrock

btw, here is a post from a forum sponsor (UPRSharad) who make control arms for S197’s and he says the control arm bolts should be torqued down with the suspension under load (at normal/lowered ride height) like I said:

https://mustangforums.com/forum/s197...g-install.html

LordRipberger

Thanks for the info.