a stupid question

[67camaro327]

im replacing the spring on my 67 camaro, i got everything off except i cant get my spindle apart from my control arms. I have tried just about everything i know and they just wont come apart. any suggestions?thanks

[derekf]

I had one of those pickle forks, I ended up beating the fork, beating the arm, beating the ball joint, eventually it all came apart and I was too tired from beating on it to do anything else for the day.

Then I got a pickle-fork attachment for my air chisel. Wow. It all came apart in about 10 seconds per side.

[67camaro327]

i got a pickel fork the other day and i bent it. it came apart pretty easy the last time i took it off.

[TRILOGYZ28]

just make sure you have a floor jack holding pressure on the lower control arm.....
if not, when you break the ball joint apart from the control arm that spring could come flyin out and take your head off !

[derekf]

Definitely. It would also be a good plan to either a) have a spring compressor already holding the spring in a compressed state, b) have a threaded rod run through the middle of the spring so it can't go anywhere, or c) have a chain run through the spring, again so it can't go anywhere.

[CAMAROBOY69]

You have compressed the spring before attempting this right?

[67camaro327]

well i put a floor jack right underneath the lower control arm so it cant really go anywhere..any suggestions to get them apart??

[Norm Peterson]

It's a lot easier to break the spindle free of the balljoint tapers if you let the spring help you.

Loosen the BJ nut such that there's about 1/8" gap between the nut and the knuckle.

DO NOT REMOVE THE NUT - IT'S WHAT WILL KEEP THE SPRING CAPTIVE!!!! (But it's still a good idea to chain the spring as backup.)

Jack the assembly upward such that the spring is trying to separate the balljoint in question. If you were also doing the UBJ, jack against the UCA through a length of 4 x 4, and the spring will be trying to push the spindle down. For the lower, jack against the spindle through a block of wood and let the UCA get pushed down. BTW, it's best to work in that order, so that you don't partially re-seat the lower while loosening the upper.

Use your pickle fork, or you may be able to fit another nut over the remaining BJ stud threads and strike it with a hammer & punch to break it free. Sometimes all you have to do is strike the spindle where the BJ stud goes through and let the spring do all the work once you've set up a little vibration. The latter two methods normally allow you to re-use the balljoint boot, if that's of any concern.

Once you've got the lower joint loose, you can remove the spring. At this point, it's really important to keep the spring under control. So leave the chain on (hope you left enough slack).

Alternatively, if you haven't damaged the ball joint boots, you can leave the ball joints alone, remove the control arm chassis bolts and let the lower arms pivot down around the balljoints with the jack . . .

Norm

[RobM]

i have a tool that works like a puller to take the ball joint out of the spindle with out damaging the ball joint grease boot. its really worth it for ride height adjustments where your cutting the spring. ball joints are more than 20$ a peice to replace and for those of use who like to be percise adjusting ride height may require the spring to come in and out a few times for trimming and you could go through a few ball joints if your using a fork.