Hi,

I am currently trying to change my front busings on the upper control arm of my 1967 VC.

I've managed to take out the Chamber botls and stuff alright, but I am guessing I have to take the control arm off the car to change these bushings.

So I am also guessing again that I will have to remove the upper ball joint.

Is this right?

If so how do I remove the upper ball joint, and does anyone have any tips and tricks?

Thanks alot, Ben!

You are correct. A pickle fork tool is what you need to separate the ball joint with a big hammer Remove cotter pin and nut, before trying to separate. If you had painted the upper control arms before removing the camber bolts, you could have put the alinment back pretty close. Still needs to be done tho Don. JMO

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Wish I'd marked the position of the cam bolts... worst .

I finally got the control arm off. and I am replacing the upper ball joint as well.

It is a pain in the A** to change the bushings as well as the ball joint.
Can someone please tell me why/how you know bushings need to be changed.

The rubber that sees the daylight was warn and cracking and split is this why it has to be changed as there could be horizontal movement?

Brussell:
[quote]The rubber that sees the daylight was warn and cracking and split is this why it has to be changed as there could be horizontal movement?[/quote]

Those are good reasons to change out bushings, as well as their age. Old hard dry rotted rubber is another reason.

Perhaps an inspection of the lower control arm bushing would be prudent. You may want to change out the lower control bushing as well because it most likely is worn out. The lower bushing carries much higher loads than the upper bushings. To renew the upper control arm bushings, and not the lower bushings, if needed, will not improve by much, the overall condition of your front end. To replace both upper & lower bushings will yield a far greater positive result.

Removal of the lower control arm is a bit more work involving disassembly of several more parts. Now that you have the upper control arm off, you have completed about 25% of the lower control arm project.

One of the steps is removing the strut, the rod that attaches to the lower radiator support rail and lower control arm, you might as well renew its bushings as well using the up graded two piece unit that is used on the “Bâ€￾ body car.

That being said, one will need a press, or a trip to a garage or machine shop to press out the old & press in the new bushing of the lower control arm.

Below is a tool I made from a 5/16â€￾ x 2â€￾ bolt and a 5/16â€￾ threaded rod coupling nut that easily separates either the upper or lower ball joint from the spindle by exerting force along the ball joint’s axis, as the bolt is extended. Tool is shown in my 1967 FSM. The washers are used to shim out along the opposing ball joint’s bolt to prevent damage to its threads.

The nut of the joint being removed has to be removed, turned end for end so that the castling is now facing to the spindle casting, and then threaded on just enough so that the flat side of the nut is even with the end of ball joint’s bolt to prevent damage to its threads.

Using this tool will not damage the rubber dust boot, an important detail if you were to reuse the existing ball joint, and dose not require big hammers & brute force.

[img]http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm87/wjajr/1967%20Dart/100_1264.jpg[/img]

Look [url=http://slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=270539&highlight=made+bushing+press#270539] here[/url] for an UCA bushing press I made from some plumbing fitting & threaded rod.

Bill

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Thanks very much this should also be made a sticky perhaps? For Noobs like me. Though I don't have a press or anything like that I was able to get the control arm off and bushings changed over etc with new ball joint installed. I am thinking I will get the lower stuff replaced as part of the road worthy. Guessing it shouldn't cost too much...

If you are removing the LCA's here is the drill:
Start by getting car safely up on jack stands
1. Remove all tension from torsion bars.
2.Remove rear boots at cross member.
3. Remove C clips in cross member rear, (usually buried in old grease).
4. Separate lower ball joints your way. I use a pickle fork. At this point you might as well think about replacing the lower ball joints as well.
5. Remove front struts bolts at front.
6. Loosen large front nuts on LCA, but do not remove. Back them off far enough that force applied to the front is applied to the nut and not the threads on the LCA itself.
7. Place block of wood on front of LCA nut and whack with a large hammer until the torsion bar pops back. This is much more effective than using a tool to grab the torsion bar. Keep track of which side is which. They are labeled L and R, but I am never clear after the fact as to whether this is facing the car, or looking forward.

AT this point, everything will just kind of fall out. You may need or want to remove the nuts that hold the rear of the front strut into the LCA to make removal easier. But I have seen the LCA remove with the strut still attached to the LCA.

I invite others to chime in here if I left out anything vital. Good luck. You will find this is not that hard. It is tough work, but does not take a brain surgeon to figure out. The fact that I can do it is proof of that.

Sam

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I'm unclear whether you're trying to separate the upper ball joint from the spindle (well described by other posts) or separate the upper ball joint from the upper control arm.

Removing the UBJ from the control arm is best performed while the arm is still on the car. The UBJ is a screw fit NOT a press fit as described in Haynes manuals. The UBJ requires a special socket and often a very long "cheater" bar. I use a 4' section of schedule 8 pipe for mine.

There are potentially three socket sizes on the market. The smallest works on the pre-73 cars (1.809"), the middle size (1.915") is good for the rest of the Mopar car line, the largest works on some trucks. The sockets I have are both 3/4" drive so I use an adapter to connect them to my ½" breaker bar.

As you have probably figured out there is a lot of rotational force needed to get the ball joints out. Be sure the car is stable on jackstands before cranking on the wrench .

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Important point during reassembly:

Leave the bushing bolts loose. Adjust the ride height per FSM procedure. Roll the car forward and backward a short distance and recheck. When the ride height is set, tighten the control arm bolts without changing the height of the car.

If you tighten the bolts with the suspension hanging, the bushings will be preloaded and *will* quickly fail. This is especially important on lower control arms of newer vehicles that have McPherson strut suspensions.

Ken