Time to pull the front springs...(gulp).

[COBALT]

Ok, now for the real fun. Since I'm an engineer I'm pretty picky about things. I'm ultra conservative about not killing myself with a large piece of steel going the speed of sound. Therefore, I'm going to take it nice and slow when I take these front springs out.

I'm going to use longhornmail's idea of using the bottle jack between the control arms to pop the ball joint loose. I'll have my heavy-duty 3 1/2 ton floor jack under the coil pocket/ball joint, and I'll chain the damn coil so it can't get airborn. Here's my final questions before I head out:

1. How loose to I need to make this chain? I gotta be able to get it off so I can recondition the control arms. If it's all chained together in one big tangle that won't do me any good at all.

2. What do I use to support the truck from rolling over on the jack stands when this ball joint goes loose? I can see this truck deciding it likes to be on its side instead of on the stands (which would put it squarely on top of my dad's Ford Tempo, which wouldn't be all bad, but I digress...). I'm thinking big blocks of fire wood under the rockers or front clip...

[Benrs86]

i just put big blocks under the frame right under the cab where it is straight. if you put them under the frame in the front they get in your way. i didnt use a chain so i cant help you there. i just had the jack under it, then i turned around and blocked me as good as i could and let the jack down slowly. it worked great. by the way i couldnt get a bottle neck jack to work. there isnt much room in there, so the only thing i could get to fit was the jack out of my dads dodge pickup. it is a bottleneck style, and i bent the top flange. mine where in there TIGHT. i used the pickle fork and they came right out. to get them apart i took the control arms off, but then when i got them off and they where bad i decided to take apart the ball joints. so check your control arms. good luck and be safe, Ben

[chevy lover]

I've done this before just not on a truck. but you shouldn't have to worry about the chain if you have the weight of the truck sitting on the lower control arm. When you get the ball joints loose, slowly take the weight off the control arm. As you get close the spring should pop, but not violently.

[Benrs86]

oh yeah, i had the blocks undre my pickup so that when the aframes dropped down the tires where still off the ground, and when i let my jack down with the spring, when it was as low as the jack would go the spring was still tight in there, so either get your pickup up real high, which is scary, or put your jack on the forward lip of the aframe, so when it is down all the way, you can pound it towards the center of the pickup, allowing the aframe to come down the rest of the way. i think i know what im saying, but i cant describe things on the computer. good luck anyway, Ben

[Classic Heartbeat]

new69owner this is how I do it...... It requires that you have a floor jack and not a bottle jack, but I have done many without any problems....

Set chalks behind the tires so the truck can't roll either direction.
Jack one side of the front of the truck and and remove the wheel and tire. (This allows for greater access to the "A" arms.)
Block up the frame under the cab for safety and let the truck rest on the blocks.
Now set the jack under the lower "A" arm and jack it up to within 1/4" of the bottom of the lower "A" arm. (This allows for the lower "A" arm to pop loose without flying open, because the floor jack will stop it.)
Remove the castle nut for the lower "A" arm and either you can give a couple of good hard hits with a hammer on the spindle where the ball joint is, or use a pickle fork to seperate the ball joint from the spindle.
The lower "A" arm will pop loose and rest on the floor jack.
Now all you have to do is to lower the floor jack and the "A" arms will open up, allowing you access to remove the springs.

Now when you want to replace the springs, hold the spring in place and jack the lower "A" arm back into place. WaLa!! Done Deal!! Hope this helps!! WES www.ClassicHeartbeat.com

[COBALT]

Well, I got them out, but it wasn't easy. The lower ball joints would NOT separate. I used the pickle fork + a 5 lb sledge and they wouldn't budge. I even used the bottle jack trick and all I did there is start bending the upper control arm. They still wouldn't budge. Finally after about 3 hours of working at it I decided to take scrub's route, which involves putting pressure on the control arm assemblies with the floor jack, and pulling the U-bolts, then letting the control arm down with the ball joint still attached. Worked like a charm. I ended up destroying both lower ball joints. They were useless anyway, but still.

Now, for the upper ball joints. Besides beating on the spindle does anyone have a better way of getting these out?

[minibike]

I beat on the spindels. Since you aren't going to be reusing the ball joints or boots, you can jam the fork in there and then heat the top of the spindle with a propane torch. After getting it pretty warm, another tap on the fork did the trick.

[Duallie]

Make a screw jack out of a 5/8 fine thread bolt and nut and a short chunk of pipe that the bolt threads just fit into.
Remove the balljoint nut (or loosen it a bunch). With one wrench holding the bolt head immobile, use the other wrench to tighten the 5/8" nut down on the pipe chunk, causing the balljoint(s) to move away from each other.
This way allows you to reuse a good balljoint and seal, too, instead of ripping the boot with a pickle fork.

[COBALT]

I finally got the upper ball joints loose, but it took me all day yesterday to get them both out. I beat on the spindle with a drift until my arm was going to fall off. No damage to the spindle, but the joint wouldn't move. I tried using a puller, and even tried the bolt trick, but neither of those did any good.

I finally had to heat up the spindle and ball joint stud with a propane torch, and then blasted the pickle fork with all the might I could muster. A couple times of that and it finally came loose. These have never been changed. They're still riveted to the upper control arm. So much dirt. and filth! To give you an idea the nuts for the U-bolts on the lower control arms weren't even VISIBLE. They were burried under about 2 inches of old dirt, grease, and filth. I had to chizel it out with a screw-driver and wire brush the nuts to get a grip on them.

Now I got everything apart except for the connecting rod that runs between the pitman arm and the idler arm. It's snug on the pitman, and I can't seem to get it to come loose. Anyone know of a puller I could get to pop that thing loose? All of my pullers' jaws are too big and wont' fit. I gotta reuse that rod, so I don't want to beat it up.