my love hate relationship with pick-n-pull

[gasmn1620]

Today I tell a tale of victory.... why you ask. We'll I went in there to look and see if they had a set of upper and lower a-arms for my ol 87. Then I remembered that when I was changing my hheadlights from the old big bulbs to halogens that my buckets were rusted to hell. Scored a full set of buckets, rings, adjusters and springs. Doing good so far.

they had 5 or 6 trucks our body style... well 2 burbs and 3 trucks, 2 being 4wd. So I'm looking at interior pieces and bumpers and all (them burb bumpers my end up on my truck) and I look up and see a mint.... I mean mint driver side vent window assembly in that burb. Took it out. Big time score. Just hhave to replace the felt that the window rides in.

I got all of that for $42 dollars. Going back for the arms and the bumpers next week. Complete arm set is $125. Gonna have them powder coated and put my energy suspension bushings in them. They won't let me bring a jack so how the ef do I get them off safely? Also, anybody got pics of an arm that has had the cups cut out?

[77c10]

If you are worried about the spring flying out:
1. Take a 2-3 foot section of chain and secure it to the frame or a-arm before attempting to break the ball joints loose.
2. Look around, I almost always see a scissor jack laying on the ground or in the trunk of a car.

[gasmn1620]

Would a decent c - clamp hold the spring pressure enough to get them out? Maybe I could rent a spring compressor from auto zone or something. I need to get a fork to knock them ball joints loose too. Poop. I see my Saturday being spent in the parts yard.

[wideopen1967]

A stout ratchet strap works well to.

[franken]

I've done this on cars at picknpull, but be careful and make sure the spring isn't compressed before removing the shock bolts...

Put a wheel or 3 under the control arm so it can only drop a few inches, loosen the lower BJ nut til the top of the nut is flush with the top of the threads and use a BFH on the spindle where that BJ is. Once the BJ pops, loosen the nut the rest of the way.
The shock won't let the spring escape and will dampen the release of energy. Wiggle the wheels out. By now the spring should be fully uncompressed. Remove the shock bolts.

[gasmn1620]

Thanks franken... sounds easy enough. I'll take a stout strap and a bfh with me

[mrolds88]

If you're taking both uppers and lowers, loosen both upper and lower balljoint nuts. When you hit the spindle the shock of the spindle hitting the nut will a lot of times pull the spindle out of the other nut.

[andrewmp6]

They do still make old school spring compressors that got inside the spring.Or see if you can get one of the junkyard workers to cut the springs with a torch or sawzall.

[Hertzdaddy]

I sneak a small bottle jack into the yard in my tool box. Then I chain up the spring, back the ball joint nut off and use the jack against the crossmember to press the lower arm off. Once it pops i move the jack under the lower arm, remove the ball joint nut, and let the arm down slowly. No drama and no banging with the BFH, which hasn't worked that well for me in the past anyway.