I second the lock tight advice, a friend of mine has lost a control arm bolt on the civic he had once and the one he has now twice.. I think he's an idiot for making the same mistake 3 times. He also cut the coils on his first honda, the one he has looks like drop coils but I could be wrong.. his camber is like /  \.. it's sooo funny.

yea, I was messing with my back suspension today to see if I could get the isolators off and I couldn't and I pryed with s big screwdriver.. my friend said to try a pickle fork so I may try that next time I have time to tinker a bit

how did you get your isolators off?

An isolator being the rubber thing between the coil and the chasis? Why remove it? I removed it to see what it was, I simply used a big screwdriver...

Thanks guys.  I found a Craftsman snap ring plier combo thingy.  You can take the prongs out and replace them so it's a straight type and a 90 degree bend type.

I think the rear's getting done tomorrow...I hope.

An isolator being the rubber thing between the coil and the chasis? Why remove it? I removed it to see what it was, I simply used a big screwdriver...

there is like a metal thing on top of it, is that part of the isolator or does the rubber part come off separate. I was going to put some small spacers I made out of boredom in.. 1/4 inch.. had the plastic and the holesaws so I figured I might as well... since I have nothing better to do I was thinking I might install them, the back seems way easy so I'll probably do that first, was going to today but when the screwdriver thing didn't work to get that thing off of there to put the spacer behind it I just put it back together... if nothing else the joke spacers I made will at least level it out a bit once I have them up front

if the rubber is separate from that metal sleeve I'll feel really dumb for not trying that.. I already do.. and the fact that I am even considering putting 1/4 inch spacers in.. but I can and it's free so why not

Does any of this require andy really large sockets?  Above 3/4" or 19mm?  I can't see where but just want to make sure.

I'm pretty sure the upper nut on the strut was 21mm.  I had shattered the 19mm socket on the last bolt when I installed my hitch so I needed a new set anyways.

Well, got the rear done today.  Took longer than I hoped for and I started much later than I had wanted but eh...the rear is done.

On the rears I had to use my coil spring compressors to get the coils back in, there was just NO way I could get them in with the spacers in their position.  They were too long by several inches.

On to the front tomorrow.

Yeah...uhm...maplebar I hate you and your rust free environment...off to town to find a ball joint puller...

The front is going slow but steady...but I'm stuck with the balljoints.  I can't get them loose using any method available to me so I've gotta go find a puller.
Anybody know where you can get ball joints for these things or are they a dealer only item?

Well, I now have a ball joint remover/installer set.  Technically it's a rental from Advanced Auto but I might just keep it.  The Ranger's going to need attention soon.  Now to figure out how it works.

It doesn't work and neither does the other stuff they had.



SO...without resorting to a pickle fork that'd likely damage the boot...and then make me replace the whole unit...what's my options?  I can't get the knuckle off of the ball joint shaft.

Anybody?  Seems awfully lonely in here...

JCDMRX's instructions didn't work.  Maplebar's didn't either...anybody?

If you can get a replacement boot, heating up the arm with a propane torch (not so hot it discolors or turns cherry-red!) and then cool it down by spraying it with WD40 allways worked for me when i lived back east. Be carefull when spraying the wd40, it can flare up some times.
This will at least save the joint, but it really looks like your going to have to suck it up and trash it.

Yeah, I tried all of the puller's at AutoZone, Pepboys etc. and I couldn't get the angle/positioning right for them to work well on the ball joint.  After I was done during the next week I did find that a local specialty tool shop had a one-armed ball joint puller with a fork on one end to go around the joint like what is shown in the factory repair manual.  Did you find a puller like the one shown in the manual?

why exaclty do you need to pull the ball joints? I would like to know cause I might be getting some ome coils in a while
thanks

maroon, you need to pull the knuckle off the ball joint so that you can drop the a-arm enough to get the spring off.  With the cv-joint going through the knuckle you have to seperate the two to do this...but you can't seperate them without taking the knuckle off of the a-arm...which is where I'm stuck right now.

maplebar, I tried big two armed pullers and little ones and found the same results as you.  They had ONE single armed puller but it was too narrowl, wouldn't go in far enough over the edge of the knuckle to get to the ball joint stud with the screw.  If it had been half an inch wider we'd have been in business.

Well, the shops are open again, off to go find a pickle fork and at least one lower control arm...

Well...no one has new lower control arms in stock locally (big surprise ) and the local junkyard that "had plenty" had exactly one right and one left with damage to the ball joint boots.  They and another 'yard had more still on vehicles but both wanted a deposit before they even went out to get the parts...likely using the same method they used to screw up the ones I looked at.

You can get them brand spanking new on Ebay for about $160 delivered...but then I found a place in Minnesota that has guaranteed good used ones for around $60-80 each delivered to me.  I called and the guy was very courteous and knowledgeable and said they'd go out today and he'd make sure they were low mileage and in great shape.  They'll be here before the weekend.   www.PamsAuto.com and Deep Discount Car Parts on Ebay.

SOOOO...I'm going to go put the passenger side back together and hope it's still aligned and wait for next weekend.  At that point out comes the pickle fork and the damn knuckles are coming off no matter what!

I just answered in another post, but you don't really need to remove the knucle from the arm, all you need to do is disconnect the rest:
Brake caliper (2 bolts)
ABS sensor cable (1 bolt)
CV You need to take out the hubs and remove the clips. Then you can slide the CV out a little, and when you lower the arm, you can shift the CV inwards as you lower the arm.
Steering link I'm not sure if this is absolutely necessary, but I would recomend it so you don't damage something (specially in the place where it bends, in the boot). A broken steering linkage on the highway would be painfull This is how I did it by combining two methods. One is in the following pic: http://fotos.miarroba.com/fotos/b/3/b39d01a8.jpg I placed the block and hammer so that the link wouldn't move at that end. That is so that the link inside the boot doesn't suffer too much. Then I used the brake tool as a lever between the knuckle and the link to pop off the link from the arm. The other method was placing a nut half way on the thread. Then you get a hammer and hit the bolt mighty hard. And you should end up with the link loose and a useless nut. Watch out, they have a weird thread (I had to go to Suzuki to get a new one).
Stabilizer Again I'm not sure if it is mandatory, but it is very easy to remove.

And I think that was it... Hope it helps