Control arm help

[geetarspaz]

I changed my tie rods fine and went to change my front control arms next. Only made it to the one side when I must of spend 3 hours trying to get the nut off the balljoint on that connects to the tire shock and tire area. It would just keep spinning no matter how many different combinations of ways I tried to get the bolt to not spin so I could take the nut off. Any help would be appreciated. I need to get my new control arm in asap because as of right now im driving half the speed limit with parts half on clunking and making horrible noises

(pictures don't really serve a purpose, but it seemed that everything was in a dead end circle) The closest chance I had was vice grips on the bolt directly with a cloth between it for friction, but even then it still persisted to spin no matter how hard i gripped those. I saw articles about people putting the jack under it, but I had the shock right above the bolt and the nut wouldnt have any room to get out because of the shock there. What are my best options anyone? thanks for any replies

[Romak]

Originally Posted by geetarspaz

I changed my tie rods fine and went to change my front control arms next. Only made it to the one side when I must of spend 3 hours trying to get the nut off the balljoint on that connects to the tire shock and tire area. It would just keep spinning no matter how many different combinations of ways I tried to get the bolt to not spin so I could take the nut off. Any help would be appreciated. I need to get my new control arm in asap because as of right now im driving half the speed limit with parts half on clunking and making horrible noises

(pictures don't really serve a purpose, but it seemed that everything was in a dead end circle) The closest chance I had was vice grips on the bolt directly with a cloth between it for friction, but even then it still persisted to spin no matter how hard i gripped those. I saw articles about people putting the jack under it, but I had the shock right above the bolt and the nut wouldnt have any room to get out because of the shock there. What are my best options anyone? thanks for any replies

Remove the 3 bolts holding the strut to the hub, swing it out of the way, the ball joint should have an allen head on it, you now have full access to the top of it that you can hold to remove the nut. If not tighten the nut back on with an impact and that should wedge the taper up into the hole in the hub enough to stop the ball joint from spinning as you remove the nut. You may need to use a small puller to remove the ball joint from the hub after the taper wedges itself though.

The 3 bolts are both #3's and #5, removing them really makes the job a lot easier, I've done it 3 times and learned this the first time around.

[spidertri]

I use the jack under the ball joint method. Once the nut is broken loose you can remove the jack and let the ball joint come down to get the space you need to take the nut out.

[geetarspaz]

Originally Posted by Romak

Remove the 3 bolts holding the strut to the hub, swing it out of the way, the ball joint should have an allen head on it, you now have full access to the top of it that you can hold to remove the nut. If not tighten the nut back on with an impact and that should wedge the taper up into the hole in the hub enough to stop the ball joint from spinning as you remove the nut. You may need to use a small puller to remove the ball joint from the hub after the taper wedges itself though.

The 3 bolts are both #3's and #5, removing them really makes the job a lot easier, I've done it 3 times and learned this the first time around.

I think it'll try this. I wasn't sure how the allen head would hold up thinking it would strip but ill get it a go

[Donald.j]

I always use a ball joint fork to keep pressure on it

[geetarspaz]

Update. Thanks everyone for the help. It actually wasn't hard at all once I removed the shocks and used the hex tool to keep it from spinning. Last night I was just so exhausted for spending hours on it not even thinking about that. New control arms and tie rods are in and alignment is on its way within the hour or two