Bithmus

Hello,

I'm very new to car repair, but I try to give everything ago. It appears that I need a new Ball Joint on my 98 Ford Mustang. I did a lot of research online and watched many youtube videos that make it look easy. Not too much worse than replacing my rotors and brake pads.

I went to a car parts store and talked to someone about the process. He tells me that I need to get a spring compressor or the control arm will fall down and the spring will come flying out and kill me. This must be why they say to support the control arm with a jack? Is this really a safe method of changing the ball joint?

Thanks!

Sap

You will need to put a jack under the lower control arm or the spring will push it down. As far as flying out and killing you, no, that's just ridiculous.

You'll see that the coil puts downward pressure on the control arm, so that's why you need to counteract it with a jack or a jack stand before you unbolt the strut assembly.

4.698GT

Jack car up and place jackstands underneath frame rails
Remove wheels, brakes and steering knuckle and abs sensor(t8 or t10 torx socket)
Place jack underneath control arm but not under ball joint.
Hammer balljoint out. (jack will keep control arm from moving down.)
Tap new balljoint in slightly with a little grease around the outer edge to ease install.
Place jack underneath ball joint and hammer control arm down till ball joint is fully seated.(jack will keep ball joint from moving down)
Bolt steering knuckle, brakes, abs sensors and wheel back on. remove jack stands and put car on ground.

Its a quick one but it hits all the major points on disassembly and install.

Bithmus

Thank you for the responses. I've taken the wheel off several times and managed to figure out what and where all the pieces are. I should be able to manage it. O'Reilly's will loan me a ball joint press and spring compresser for free, so I'll use both of those.

Now if I could just get the stupid bolts out of the caliper. I've spent 2 hours using liquid wrench and banging on them with no luck. I think I managed to break my $5 ratchet. I guess I'll buy a quality one and try again. Any other suggestions?

Bithmus

I bought a nice craftsman wrench, turn my wheels all the way to the left so I could have clear access to the bolt, jacked up the car and pulled as hard as I could.

Now the stupid 15mm socket is just popping around the bolt without loosening it! The 14mm is too small. The 5/8th socket seems bigger than the 15mm, so is too big. The 9/16 socket is too small.

What the heck to do I do now?! Do they make a 14.5mm socket?

Bithmus

It appears that I cracked my sockets, which is why they were just sliding around the bolts. I got a new socket, a torch, and have been spraying the bolts with liquid wrench constantly for the last 2 days. I broke another socket. Guess I'll have to buy one of those expensive thicker sockets.

massred98gt

yo don't use sockets on bolts that are high torque bolts or u will break driver and socket. learned this the hard way. to get the calipars off use a six point box wrench and bang it off with a hammer or mallet of some sort. so much easier. the box wrench transfers 100% of the impact of hitting the wrench into the bolt, compared to the socket wrench which has mechanisims init which can break. Trust me so much easier

Bithmus

Well, after a week of trying I have new brake pads on one side of my car. Everything else was a failure.
You are absolutely right massred98gt. I broke 4 sockets this weekend. I got a breaker bar which helped me get the caliper off 1 side of the car, but the other side still won't budge. I don't see how I can get a wrench in there? My friend has some heavy duty sockets I'll try.

On the side I got the caliper off, I wasn't really sure where to go next to replace the ball joint. Do I need to take the little black cover thing off and unscrew the nut under it? What about the two massive bolts that are just above the ball joint? They look welded on?

massred98gt

sometimes it takes persistance, tgise calipar bolts can be stubern some times. just get a regular craftsman 15mm box wrench (i think thats the saze of the bolts and use a metal mallet and wack the crap out of the bolt. it will eventually break. as for the ball joint never done this before, but my advise would be to get a hanynes manual from autozone or something. i never tackle a project without mine.