Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums  

Ive never used a press to put em in. I guess you gotta have two jack stands and a jack .

How?????? Just curious.... seems impossible that way..

, dont listen to me.,,,, i didnt warn you about a gap underneath for no reason:D  Everybody seems to love the ole c-clamp but as you can see more than 50% of you end up with the same problem.  The clamp isnt strong enough and the thread count on the threaded rod should be double what it is to transfer the kind of leverage you need.

As for beating on the arm,, yeah right lol.  The only beating you did was on the end, good way to pen 15 eye the joint into the arm and make matters worse.
If anything, the jack should be directly under the ball joint and you should be alternating impacts (either side) on the arm beating it down over the joint.

I did foget to mention one thing though.  If your garage is heated,, then the metal on your car would be about room temp.  So........ you should have dropped your joints in the deep freeze over night and pressed them in freezing cold.  It would or could have helped along with preheating the arm.  Metal shrinks when it gets cold and expands when heated.  This is the way you do a ring gear on a manual flywheel(toss the ring gear in or over a direct fire and have the flywheel ice cold.  it just about drops right on like figging majic.

And why the heck did you take the spring out??????????

Oh well,,lol.

taking the spring out changes everything. You just lost your natural press assistant.

Leme revamp part 2 of the steps from earlier to include this unexpected variable.

Install Balljoint-do not install zerk fitting yet
-place balljoint in hole and tap into place getting it centered lined up. dont be a panty wuss, just a few good hard strikes on opposite sides alternating will get it started. just feel and look at the "ball joint stop lip" keeping it from getting cantered one way or the other.

[COLOR="Red"]-Insert your spring back in place
-jack up side of control arm until you feel presure [/COLOR]

-center block of wood with small / thick metal shim under ball joint.
-lower arm till ball joint bottom makes contact with shim only when jack is removed.
[COLOR="Red"]-insert a jack stand along either side of control arm as a safety catch[/COLOR]
-using hand sledge, beat on outter most part of control arm. you are beating the arm down over the ball joint.
[COLOR="red"]-alternate beatings in different areas of control arm to assist in centering the presure of your hammer.[/COLOR]
-inspect to see progres and repeat above process.
-you will see the ball joint "stop lip" gap decreasing as it seats.
-once satisfied the ball joint is in, you might have a 1/16'' gap between the control arm and the ball joint "stop lip".
-install ball joint boot making sure it snaps all the way around
-grab spindal assembly and lift up and set on ball joint stud.
-install nut and tighten
-remove wood block
-beat on bottom of ball joint a couple more times
-check ball joint nut again
-install zerk fitting and grease till you feel/see the boot swell
-the rest is reverse order on the rotor,caliper and tie rod end.
-remember to debur tie rod end stud / nut and test fit tie rod end nut prior to putting it on.

remember, the  thing isnt going to seat 100% unless you pull the arms and get it under a real press.  when mine are done, there is about a 1/16'' gap.  over time, they settle and seat themselves due to simply driving.  THis is one of those situations where size matters,,,,,and in my opinion, the psi reqired to press the joints in exceed that of most of your common off the shelf c clamp presses.  If i run into one that has like 20 or more threads per inch on the threaded rod, thats probably going to be the one that lasts a man the longest and does the job right because from what i see out there, this round stock probably only has like 12-14 threads per inch which sux ass berries.

the only way your going to get the gap 100% closed is to hone out the a-arm hole just a little bit. (no i didnt suggest this nor do i think its a good idea-very bad idea, just simply stating facts)


If you are considering removing the A arm,, please note what you will need to do on both bolts or your dropping the rack as well.  Or, just ignore this.  Cut off a portion of the pan head bolt after you get the nut off the rear.  Now your bolt slides off and out easy granted you have already yanked the dust boot off the rack and up the inner a decent distance.

One of my biggest battles ever with a T-bird was removing an a-arm bolt.  It was the last bolt and boy was it a SOB!

Good luck, use lots of heat and an impact.