Me too, especially since the ones I got from BMA clearly show just a press and clip fitment. Now to find a maker of the same size balljoint.

Are you replacing this yourself? If so, how do you tighten the bushings on the inboard side of the upper control arm. Does it have to have the weight of the car on the suspension? Are they supposed to swivel up and down or should there be tension on them? Lately mine is getting squirrely and it seems to bounce like a row boat (not even side to side). Since I have one old one (upward tension when you take off the knockle) and one new ish BMA (no tension but the bolts are tight), I don't know if the tension is from the bushing bolts freezing inside the bushings causing the tension, or if I'm tightening the new ones wrong because they can still swing up and down pretty freely.

 

The upper control arm comes with all bushings and of course the ball joint. Check out this pic. Item 6 or 8 has the whole assembly which bolts somewhere inside the wheel well.



You need to jack up the car and put on jackstands. Place a jack under the steering knuckle so it doesn't fall down while you remove it.

 

Fasteners 15 and 17: when you tighten those, will the upper arm still move up and down freely? Or when you tighten them down, then pop the ball joint out, should it spring back up (preloaded bushings)?

I'm not sure if my old one's bushings are preloaded or if the bolt is just frozen inside it. The new one I have, I could still swing the arm up and down, even after tightening the 15 and 17.

Is this making any sense?

 

You shouldn't have to touch 15 and 17. When it's removed, you unbolt the item 16's. The bushings your talking about come with a new upper control arm.

 

I'm talking about when I'm installing the new upper arm.

 

Me too! The bushings and everything come with the new upper control assembly. I checked one out at carquest.com.

 

Right, but the bushings are held on by a bolt and nut. When I got my new ones they could be laid down flat, the bushings would swing freely because the bolt and nut wasn't tightened down yet. When I removed the old one, the bushings were tight, in an "L" shape.

Do I tighten 15 and 17 after the new arm is installed and the weight of the suspension is on it. I'm talking really crank on the bolt and nut so it tightens in on the bushings? Or do I leave it free swinging?

 

Ah Haaaaaa!!! Says the blind man.

:doh:

You need to align the anchor bolts with the notch in the upper arm. The pic says it all (pg. 18-21 from helms).

 

Now I'm getting somewhere, are the bolts tightened with the suspension loaded? I would assume so, so that the bushings aren't under stress when they shouldn't be, which would break them loose in no time.
Thanks.

Chances of me being able to loosen the anchor bolts on a 13 year old rust belt arm without breaking them, not good. But I do have the bushings from the new arm with bad balljoint I could swap over.

I love the check the camber in step 8, there's nothing I can do anyway with the stock arm correct?

 

A great way to listen for clunks in general is to drive diaganally over a speed bump at slow to slow/medium speed and listen for noise you don't like. Hit the bump with the left tire first and also the right tire first. Roll down your windows!

CV joints (just for info) don't have much going on inside of them as you drive in a straight line. They do their work as you turn and especially as you turn AND apply gas. That is the key to quickly diagnosing the CV noise.

For upper ball joints (I have a bad one now) you can usually grap the top of the tire, even when it's firmly on the ground, and give it hell as you lean back and forth into it. Do this with the car raised too. Watch the parts and you may see something that you can't hear.

Tie rods, jack up car and wiggle as it would turn. Lower joint, Raise car and pull up on the bottom of the tire with all your might and then push it back, see if it moves (also will tell you if bushings are screwd on lower control arm).

ANY of these conditions will eat up your tires (except for CV's). Look for a torn.

CV boot, if it's torn, just swap the axle.