How in god's name do you remove the lower lateral arm?. I've removed the 2 other bolts with ease, but the first one next to where the rotor is just won't come out of its place. I've been at it for hours. Is this thing threaded in? I've removed the nut, but the bolt won't move at all. This is the only bolt holding me from removing it to replace it. This is the drivers side front wheel btw. Anyone can shed some light on how you went about it. Thanks.

You are talking about the fork that supports the strut assembly correct?



The bolt is not threaded in, but the strut is exerting downward force against the bolt. Couple ways to go about it: loosen the clamp bolt that secures the fork to the strut tube so it can slide up, or place a jack and lift the fork slightly without applying pressure to the lateral arm.

Either way you need to relieve the pressure on that bolt for it to slide out.

Not the fork bolt, that one I took off easily. I'm referring to the lateral arm. The one before the fork bolt. It comes up vertically from the ball joint to the wheel hub assembly.

Originally posted by 96rs-t
Not the fork bolt, that one I took off easily. I'm referring to the lateral arm. The one before the fork bolt. It comes up vertically from the ball joint to the wheel hub assembly.

So... the ball joint itself?

I have not had this problem on my 2GNT, but on the Trailblazer it was frozen and the seperating fork didn't do anything. I used a bunch of PB Blaster on it, and with the nut partially threaded on so that you don't mushroom the threads, tap down on that... worked on the TB.

No, this is probably not the right way to do this. I have done this successfully, but an alignment was done immediately after replacement.

40279c bolt that goes through the lateral arm and bushing? That was a pain in the ass. Like said above use a jack to support it and a about a can of pb blaster and hopefully you can get it out.

i seriously give up. this is the biggest pita i've ever come accross working on this car. Just gonna take it to pepboys and pay an arm to get if fixed.

I gotcha - what you are talking about is the ball joint, not a bolt. And it seats in a taper which makes it difficult to remove.

Rent/buy a ball joint separator that looks like a clothes pin. Slap it on, turn the adjustment bolt which forces the opposite end to get smaller, popping the ball joint out...

I knew there was a special tool for this crap. Thanks, will give it a go with the tool. Thanks!

ok, so now i have the new ball joint installed, but I can't torque it down at all. The ball joint just spins with the nut, ughz! Always has to be something. How do I torque these things without the ball joing spinning? It's still very loose.

edit: nvm, a little wd40 did it.

Keep in mind it is a tapered seat. Use a jack or something similar to apply force to the underside of the control arm to force the stud in place and from spinning.

yeah, i basically had to rest the weight of the car on the control arm to finally torque it down.

channel locks work will, to force the ball joint in so it doesnt spin when tighting it. i run in to alot of trouble with sezied ball joints, bp blaster and take the nut off not all the way, then hit the shit out of hit with like a 3lb hammer with will brake loose 90% of the time.

Is there a reason you are bumping this old thread?

Originally posted by CODE4
Is there a reason you are bumping this old thread?

possibly for future members lol, but if he was talking about the damper fork bolt, mine was so seized up, I almost thought it welded itself in the bushings lol...its mitsubishi's fault, but they won't take any responsiblity haha...

Mitsu/Chrysler should be shot for the design of these balljoints.
I hear Gm has similar problems with the G6.