Well I decided to keep Big White for now. It was cheaper than a $400+ car payment.

So I am currently swapping out the ball joints, tie rod ends, and steering arms.

Can anyone tell me by looking at my pictures if the lower control arm is the stamped kind or the forged kind. It matters when you get the new ones.

Thanks,
I will post up some pics.

First thing I did was jack and support front end leaving suspension hang but supported by jack. Then I removed caliper and tied out of way and removed brake disc.



This is one of the 4 problem teeth on the old dinosaur.


You will need one of these pickle fork kits. I got this one off ebay for 20 bucks.


Get out your BFH and give her a wack.


Out comes the air chisel and I chiseled off the factory rivets.




Just keep hitting she will seperate sooner or later.


Replace with a new one and tighten nut to about 100 ftlbs on torque wrench then put in the cotter pin. As you can see the new one has nice self locking nuts on top to replace the rivets.
[b]

Just taking a guess because I've never seen one vs the other, but stamped A arms are usually gigangic things that look like a piece of flat steel that's been shaped, and that A arm looks like a tubular arm. I'd guess you have a forged one. Either way, take the old joint in to the parts desk and ask to see both.

I'll send you a beer.... jk

I can't see the pictures at work, but the forged type is a solid piece of metal and the ball joint is knurled (ribbed).
You need a specific loctite/permatex glue (4000 psi shear) as the ball joint is held by press fit and glue, no c-clip.

I'll give you the the # for the glue when I get home in a couple of hours. With more info....

Thanks guys,

The difffence is the 2 parts are:

1. Chevy Suburban Lower Ball Joint 4WD 45.79 mm Diameter Press in Type for Stamped Steel Control Arms Moog 1995-99

2. Chevy Suburban Lower Ball Joint 4WD 47.89 mm Diameter Press in Type for Forged Control Arms 1996-99

My upper control arm is one piece of solid tubular steel.

My lower is metal that looks like it was pressed. You can see in the one picture. So I think I have the Stamped one?


Crazy,
I never heard of the glue thing you were talking about. None of the instructions I found mention it. Let me know what kind and I will pick some up before i tackle the rest.

Deputydawg wrote:

...
I never heard of the glue thing you were talking about. None of the instructions I found mention it. Let me know what kind and I will pick some up before i tackle the rest.

It's required as per GM shop manual.
Is it necessary? Don't know, but since it's not locked in place just pressed...

Whups, sorry, missed that you were asking about the lower one. That one looks like it's stamped. Since there is a measurement difference, a micrometer would tell you for certain which one you need.

Thanks Speeder and Ben,

Yeah I do think that I have the stamped ones. I will mic them to be sure.

Ben what was the name of that glue?

Thanks,
Ken

Deputydawg wrote:

Ben what was the name of that glue?

Thanks,
Ken

CrazyHoe wrote:

I'll send you a beer.... jk

I can't see the pictures at work, but the forged type is a solid piece of metal and the ball joint is knurled (ribbed).
You need a specific loctite/permatex glue (4000 psi shear) as the ball joint is held by press fit and glue, no c-clip.

I'll give you the the # for the glue when I get home in a couple of hours. With more info....

Permatex 68050
I believe it was Loctite 680 or Permatex 68050 High Strength Sleave Retainer
2 more hours to go to confirm...

By the way, this stuff was a little hard to find and pricey... But I wasn't going to argue with the GM manual.
And it was obvious my used ball joint had some.

Ps. The shear strength info is not consistent depending where the info comes from!!! Go figure.

http://www.alldatadiy.com/alldata/AFI~G~C32422~R0~OD~N/0/41746505/41746506/41746536/41746537/34853741/34864218/34864722/34864769/34864786/144412350

It is: Loctite 680 or Permatex 68050 High Strength Sleave Retainer
And I used permatex surface prep spay.

Good job on removing the upper ball joint. I did as per instructed by drilling the rivets and it went all wrong...

Now I think you went a little too fast. I think it would be easier to remove the lower ball joint without the upper one in the way.

And you'll have to remove the CV joint to separate the ball joint and remove the knucle.
Then by using your heavy duty clamp, remove the lower ball joint from underneath.
It is only press-fit and glued.

But you didn't take a good picture of the lower A arm so if like mine, it's sheet metal with a forged insert.




The right one is the one for the forged insert and the one I used.









Last edited by CrazyHoe on Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:10 pm; edited 1 time in total

By the way, grease up the tread of your C-clamp. I had 150-200flbs on the screw before the ball joint broke loose. My tread got slightly damaged.

Thanks Ben,
Once again a life saver. I will add a better picture of my lower control arm. It looks like the insert is forged to me like yours.

Sorry Ken, I'm mentioning forged insert, but I don't know if they call it that. That might be confusing.

It's stamp steel with a solid insert. Anyway, the ball joint is serrated and the other one is too big to go in.

hey Deputy, when your done with yours, how much would you charge to do mine??

Sky. I have all the tools and I am about 1 hour drive from you. HMMM????? Maybe a case of some quality beer.

Although I have only replaced the one upper. My kit was shipped with the incorrect lower and I have yet to tackle them yet. I should have them by next week. Price may go up to 2 cases of beer by the time I do them.

Hey! Is that offer international too? I still have the passenger's side to do and I'm dreading it... 2 cases specially imported beer.

We have lot's of micro breweries much better than the big brand names. LOL

my only question is, would we be drinking the 2 cases before or after the job is done ?? lol

LOL after.. I need all ten of my fingers for my profession.

Wow,

I have had the worst luck lately. First they sent me the totally wrong lower ball joints. They very nicely paid for me shipping them back to them. Then I selected the Forged type ball joints. (MY Mistake) If anyone else is doing their lower ball joints and they ask you if it is for a stamped or forged control arm. Pick the stamped. Or look at the pic that Ben posted the correct ones are like he said the one that has the grooves on it.
I think that I will not be buying fitted parts off the internet for a while.

This is a picture of the wrong ones. I went to the local parts store and bought 2 correct ones and I am throwing these on evil bay.



Maybe I will get back to this tomorrow if it ever stops raining here.

Started back up on this project this evening. I got lucky on the passenger side. The upper had already been replaced once before, so I did not have to use the air chisel. I will go ahead and replace it again since I have one and I'm in there. I also bought some more rust converter by permatex and some high temp caliper spray. I plan on treating the caliper and steering knuckle with both.

Well I will post some more pics once I get to the lowers. They by the way seem to me to be more of a pain in the ass because it looks like I will have to pull out the half shafts.

ANYONE know what size the big nut holding the hub on is? Are there bearing inside the hub that I will need to grease?