I'm in the middle of taking everything apart to install the Autospring leveling kit when I came to taking the nut off the ball joint that connects the upper control arm to the spindle, I tried using a regular wrench, and the whole thing started spinning. I then tried and impact wrench, that loosened the nut to the bottom of the bolt, but now it's stuck. The nut won't tighten or loosen. Any body have any ideas of what I can do? Thanks

 

Cheater bar??

 

Won't come off with the impact? Sounds like the nut has cross threaded...you'll probably have to torch the nut off or use a nut splitter. Hopefully it didn't mess up the threads on the ball joint.

 

My truck's ball joints have a hex head on end of the stud. You should be able to hold the hex head with a wrench and back the bolt off enough to remove it. Now if you over-torqued the bolt by going the wrong way with the impact, you may have messed up the threads. I'm assuming you know which way to go with the impact.

 

It gets rough after you back off a litte because it gets into the threads that have been eposed to dirt and grim. The impact just spun the whole thing. Use the wrench on the end or a pair of good Vice Grips to hold the stud and keep trying to back it off. Also hit the threads that are exposed with some penatrating oil (Tri Flow or WD40) and let it sit for a bit. Try that!!

 

ok...get yourself a long bar and put it through a coil on the spring and use the bar as a leaver to push the upper a-arm down. While pushing down on the bar remove the nut. Forcing the ball joint down into the steering knuckle will keep it from spinning.

 

Except for using a nut splitter, I've done all of that. I've soaked it with penatrating oil, tried taking a torch to it, I even tried to tighten it, that won't even work. Maybe it's time to use a nut splitter. If it comes down to that, how hard is it to replace the ball joint?

 

i was gonna suggest the crow bar on the upper control arm, that sorta happened to me and was the answer. the hex head is a 10 mm which also could help.

if nothing, fixing a broken ball joint is a b***h! i think they are pressed in. you might want to pull the upper and take it to a shop. good luck however bro. i was cussin mine out for an hour...

 

Finally got it. I took a 6 foot rock bar and pushed down as hard as I could while my father got the nut with the impact wrench. Thanks for all the help

 

Yeah but the uppers are one piece i dont think you can changed the ball joints on them. The lowers is what you can replace the ball joints on

 

good to know, i was unsure. thanks. i guess he could have changed the entire thing but that would be costly.

at least he got the nut off! but now can he get the thing back on? thats the problem i had. i used a thin bladed hack-saw to carefully re thread the damn thing. mine were crossed threaded slightly. i even had my wife help with pliers holding the ball joint to get it back on.

 

i said he got his nut off...