Help with lower control arm ball joint question

[shoccwave]

My damper fork bolt seized in the lateral arm bushing so I had to cut off the bolt on both sides to get it off. I went to O'reillys and bought a replacement lateral arm, but I'm not sure if they gave me the wrong one. As you can see from the picture the new one has the balljoing boot higher up and it wont let me slide it into the knuckle to put the nut on. My question is...does this boot move down as I tighten the nut or did they give me the wrong one?

 

[knochgoon24]

The boot will squish. It helps form a seal at the top to keep dirt out.

 

[shoccwave]

But how do I get it to squish? I cant even get it far enough into the knuckle to start threading the nut into the balljoint thread

 

[Locke]

Put a jack under the balljoint and lower the vehicle onto it a bit to load the joint. That will help get it in there some, hopefully enough to get the nut started.

If all else fails, it may be a bad part. The dealer part is remarkably inexpensive. I bought a lateral arm from JNZ a couple of years ago, and I recall it not costing very much.

 

[EagleTSIawd]

From the picture the stud on the new one looks shorter. If you can't press it in any further so that the nut gets ahold of enough thread, you might just end up stripping the stud and/or nut. It happenened to me and I got real pissed because I did not want to wait another week to reorder a new one.

What I ended up doing on the other control arm though, i grinded the hole to make it a little bigger so that the stud could drop in further down and it worked just fine. So that's one trick you can do if you are short on time.

Btw, just to point out. Note that the stud is not perfectly straight. It gets wider to the bottom, this is so that the stud stays firm and tight in the hole as you torque the nut.

 

[shoccwave]

Actually they are the same length...just a crappy picture angle I guess...sorry. They're the same length and the threads start and end in the same location...just the boot seems to be higher on the new one.

 

[knochgoon24]

Using a jack under joint will help. The pressure will help keep the stud from spinning once you start to get the nut on.

 

[idkiliketurbos]

Yeah I just replaced one on the passenger side and am going to do the drivers side this week. Just put the jack under where the stud is and keep trying. I had to put a lot of the weight of the car on it to get it to not turn, but i've also heard people barely put any pressure at all. So just keep trying until it seems to have locked in and you can turn the nut on.

 

[shoccwave]

Well, the above methods didnt work for me...what I did was insert a long socket onto the balljoint stud and pressed down on the boot with it and a vice grip going slowly making sure not to damage the stud or the boot. I have my car on all fours again, thanks guys.