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I need to replace my drivers side spindle but am kind of hesitant. I went ahead and separated the lower ball joint, but then reconsidered the process thinking that I may not be able to get everything back together. I went ahead and struggled with a floor jack to get everthing lined up again and torqued back to specs. For those who have done this job before, can you tell me what the secret is to getting the ball joints back into the spindle when the control arms are under constant tension from the torsion bars in the front beam? My manual shows a picture of a modified jack used to position the upper control arm, but I don't have that tool. I am just afraid if I disassemble everything that I may not be able to get it back together and since this is my daily driver I will be stranded. Thanks for any suggestions.

There really isn't that much pressure from the arms. If the car is on stands you should be able to jack up the upper arm with a piece of 2x4 on your floor jack. Better yet use a bottle jack to push the arm up.

The front arms are not high sprung like the rear torsion arms. They are a whole new kettle of fish.

"G"

Maybe the tension I was feeling was fron the tie rod end-in the book it says to disconnect that first before the ball joints so maybe that is the reason why I had such a hard time re-aligning the lower ball joint

The tie rod restricts the movement, especially with the steering damper attached. Makes it hard to move by hand.

A little more labor a lot less hassle


Remove gas tank
Jack stand front end and remove the wheels.
Remove shock damper
remove the tie rod end
Remove ball joint studs
The spindle is clear.
I always pull my gas tank any time I work on my front end.
It lets me easily replace that front gas line and give a clean shot at lots of parts. I clean out the front area at the same time and it make alligning the front enda a simple breeze. It also allow for an indepth look at all the front boot rubber and more. I have done it so many times I can pull the tank and be in the front end in under 10 minutes. I try to remember to do this when the tank is under 1/8 of a tank (gas weighs 8.6 lbs per gallon.) Hope this is of some help. If you have other front end question I have taken a bunck of Thing front ends completely apart and back together and have run into more than a few sticky issues on stiff new parts especially on ones we cut and turned without adjusters and used new front front torsion leaf springs. K-mann