Need some quick help with upper ball joint strippage

[VanIsleDSM]

so I'm changing my driver side inner CV boot, I read on vfaq that I just unbolt the strut from the steering knuckle and I can swing it outa the way to get the axle out, sweet... well.. the pic on vfaq looks totally different than my '97TSi, vfaq has 2 bolts, wheras my car has 1 bolt with a different design holding onto the strut, I'd have to slide the strut out of it's holder, which I don't think is possible? (not without unbolting it from the car) so with vfaq being no good and me being a suspension noob I pull out my haynes manual, I have to take off the lower controll arm, upper control arm, and tie rod.. ahhh! that sucks ass.. (is there any easier way????) but what sucks even more is I undid the 17mm nut on the upper ball joint to start taking off the upper arm and couldn't get it to come out for the life of me, my hanyes just says "hit the steering knuckle with a hammer" hit it where? and how? I don't see how that will help at all.. logic tells me I should put a different nut on the end of the stud from the balljoint (to protect the threads) and hit it up and out of it's hole.. anyway that didn't work either, so I figure I'll just unbolt the other ends of the arm from the strut mount and maybe I can just leave the arm on the top to get the axle out, well... here's my real problem and why I'm making this post, I put the bolt back on, and I must have damaged the threads somehow, even though I had a nut on the end.. because the whole thing, nut and stud are stripped to sh@t now... what do I do? do I need a new balljoint? (is the stud part of it?) I wish I could see how this stuff was put together so I knew how to take it apart.. and haynes manual is bullsh*t.... someone help please, I don't want my car off the road for too long.

 

[Woodsy0]

The ball joint in question is the upper control arm ball joint, correct? When you say you stripped the threads, do you mean the nut spins without torquing down on the shaft, or both the shaft and the nut spin? If it's the latter, it's because the ball joint shaft is tapered, and you need to put pressure on the fitting to stabilize the ball joint shaft (keep the shaft from spinning when torque is applied) and reattach the nut. I used a pry-bar between the top of the ball joint to apply pressure to the fitting in order to torque down the nut.

If it's the former, you can try repairing the threads with a thread chaser or a thread die, but most likely, you'll need to replace the ball joint. Thepartsbin.com or mitsubishiparts.com should have it for ~30-40 bucks. To remove the damaged ball joint from the arm, I think all you need is snap ring pliers to remove the c-clip (after removing the ball joint boot) from the arm.

Scott

 

[VanIsleDSM]

Thanks Woodsy, by stripping I mean the threads are ruined, I managed to bang it out now, I guess I'll need a new one.. damnit.. I dont' think I want to screw around re-threading suspension parts so I'll just take the hit.. I've heard some people buy a whole new upper control arm? I hope it's as easy as you say, just a c-clip, my stupid haynes manual says you need to buy a whole new arm.. but that thing is a piece of sh*t anyway.. now with the upper ball joint seperated from the steering knuckle I can almost get the axle out of the hub to complete my original job of changing the CV boot.. I really hope I can get it out without screwing with the 2 lower ball joints and tie rod end.. I'm gonna go and remove the strut holder to see if that helps at all.. anybody have any advice? I see now that the pictures in the vfaq are for a 1g, but it says "ALL" we'll see...

 

[Woodsy0]

I removed my CV axle several days ago for a boot repair myself, to my memory I removed the two bolts (per side, that is) that attach the upper control arm to the frame (large 17mm nuts can be seen under the hood on both sides of the upper shock mount) and the bolts that secure both lwr control arms to the frame. That way, you don't have to futz with the ball joints. I then just removed the long bolt that attaches the shock fork (the thing the bottom of the shock slides into...I don't know if this is entirely necessary but I'm changing out my shocks/springs so I did this anyways), and with the shock fork loose, I could pivot the strut forward and out from the wheel well (after removing the three upper shock mounting nuts, of course). After the strut is out, I didn't even have to remove the tie rod end, with the upper and two lower arms away from the frame, you should be able to pivot the knuckle far enough out to slide the axle shaft out from the hub.

When removing the bolts on the carrier bearing bracket, make sure they're in good shape, and maybe even apply some loctite on them when reinstalling...I've had the bolts break on two seperate occasions, haven't heard of it happening often but just one more thing to watch out for.

Good luck~

Scott

 

[VanIsleDSM]

well I ended up only needing to take off 1 of the lower control arms, the one with 2 bolts, closer to the rear of the car... thanks again Woodsy for your help... the hardest part was getting that damn sway bar link off.. I dont' imagine putting this back together will be very fun.. at any rate, napa gave me the wrong damn CV boot, it has no indents on the large side of the boot to fit onto the roller bearing housing properly.. apparently I got the part listed for a non-turbo AWD model.. umm? they don't make one bud.. anyway.. that'll be here tomorrow so the car gets to stay suspended in the air tonight.. yay.. what exactly is the carrier bearing? I'd inspect the bolts from it if I knew what it was..

Here's my new question... on vfaq stating that the operation is for "all" DSMs (which it is obviously not, though still a good guidline) it states that you can get the cv boot band clamp pliers in on the inner boot to tighted the clamp if you remove the frame mount.. this way I don't need to take out the intermediate shaft.. well I don't see any frame mount around there, or any way I will possibly be able to get this done without taking out the intermediate shaft and have to do the tranny drain and everything else too... is it possible some way to tighten the clamp while the intermediate shaft is on the car? and also, why make a stupid special clamp that needs a special tool... why not just use a hose clamp style? jesus.. how annoying.

This is way off topic now and I may make a new thread if nobody answers, but you seem to know what you're doing woodsy, and the operation is fresh in your mind.. hopefully you'll have some more insight for me!

 

[Woodsy0]

The carrier bearing is the bearing that the axle inserts into, to the right of the inner cv boot, before the transmission. It has two "ears" that have bolt holes where it bolts onto the block, these two bolts also serve to bolt down the a/c compressor. Here's a diagram of the driver's side front drive axle for a GSX, it's number 8 in the diagram:

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I've never tightened the cv boot on while still attached to the car, so I can't help you there, but I can tell you that you can remove the left half of the axle (by left half, I mean the axle assembly as it runs from the wheel hub to the aforementioned carrier bearing) which negates the need for tapping the intermediate shaft out of the transmission and risk messing your axle seal or dealing with any transmission fluid.

The axle is fit into the carrier bearing with a c-clip, so with a flathead and a hammer lightly tap the roller bearing cup to the left and out of the carrier bearing. You'll be able to work on the cv boots with the axle out of the car and onto a work bench (easier). The one extra piece of work you'll probably have to do is remove the downpipe, unless you have a really long flathead that can somehow get a good spot on the cup to tap out, removing the downpipe gives you much more room to hammer the axle out of the carrier bearing.

Good luck~

Scott