f15Civic

Hello everyone I need to some help!

While replacing the driver side axle on my 96 Civic LX, I ran into some problem with the upper control arm ball joint bolt/nut. After installing the new axle I started to put everything back together and when I started tightening the nut for the upper crtl arm ball joint after a couple turns the bolt on the upper ctrl ball joint just spins not allowing me to get it tight enough as it should be..

Does it mean that I need a new upper ctrl arm or I should be able to just get a new nut for the ball joint ??

I know the axle replacement How to said to remove the lower control arm, but since I could not get it separated from the hub, I went with the upper and now I have this problem.

1991civiclx13

compress the ball joint and tighten

f15Civic

Thanks for the suggestion 1991civic! I will try that hopefully that should do it..

kyden

yes compressing it should work. next time around though, all you have to do is pop the lower ball joint to remove the axle. (along with the lower shock fork).

cvcrcr99

^^ That. I was wondering why you were even messing with the upper ball joint in the first place.

f15Civic

I tried removing the lower ball joint like the Axel replacement instructions say but I after removing the nut I could not get it to come loose and for time sake I went with the upper control arm..

strategy400

Best $10 you'll ever spend.

kyden

or spend nothing at all:

strategy400

Yeah wedging and hammering works sometimes.

f15Civic

is that a ball joint separator??

f15Civic

What I can use to compress the ball joint? I tried using a C clamp and I still could not get it to stop from spinning.

fonkernuckle

iTrader: (5)

There is a youtube vid showing how to deal with this issue I saw the thumbnail of it yesterday

f15Civic

Thanks every one I managed to get it tight all the way, I got a 17min wrench with and applied a little downward pressure with the wrench while rotating the nut.

Now I can move on to get the axle on the passenger side replaced and get more other stuff done lol..

strategy400

Pesky ball joints...

S2BumpsticksGSR

Lol- all I've ever used is a ball peen on bottom ball joint to break it apart! I guess girly men need a hammer swinging class...