ok, in about 2 hours i am going to attempt to replace the left front upper ball joint on my friends 94 or 95 accord. i looked at it quick on lunch the other day and said i would do it but i have never worked on a car with double wishbone suspension- most of my experience is with mcpherson strut setups (hyundai, nissan, etc...) or light trucks.

when i looked at it, the thing had some dirt and crap on it and i was in my shirt and tie but it was pretty easily accessible so i said i would do it but i would just like some input. am i going to need a press to get this out of the upper a-arm? do i need to compress the spring to take load off of it? i would just like a general roadmap of what to do for replacing it if anyone can help me out. this is my main concern because ball joints 'sometimes' can be a pain in the ****.

next on the list on his car is a siezed RR brake caliper, shouldnt be too big a deal, unless theres something model specific i should look out for.

lastly is 2 small exhaust leaks that im just going to weld up for now- if it gets worse ill deal with it later. one leak is on the middle resonater and one is on the inside of the bend from the center section to where the pipe turns longitudally toward the RR tire.

im no stranger to cars, ive rebuilt manual trannys and engines and most everything short of heavy fabrication. right now my daily driver is a 2002 hyundai accent with a tiburon tranny, and my fun car is a 1993 hyundai scoupe turbo. plus we are in the middle of installing a T3 in my buddys 2000 elantra, we have all the parts besides the exhaust head flange which i will pick up next week and just need to weld up the exhust manifold and intercooler piping. its just a low boost setup with a cartech 2025 (i think it was) adj. rrfpr and otherwise stock engine, just for a little kick. im a hyundai guy at heart but anyways i just wanted to know any tips or advise on this upper ball joint deal, if anyone has some info please let me know.

thanks in advance!


Modified by beppomarx at 6:23 AM 4/9/2005

 

the upper ball joint is ONE piece with the upper control arm.

oem from honda should cost around 100-125 per side, i got a oem spec replacement part from a generic company, which runs about 65 per side.

you don't need a whole lot of muscle or tool to get it off, just crank off the nuts for the upper control arm(2-3), take off the cotton pin, take off the castle nut, and seperate the ball joint, hell, i didn't even need a balljoint seperator, just tap it couple of time with a piece of wood and hammer.

some of the problem with the exhaust is, about the time you finish welding up the hole there's another one growing somewhere. esp. true if you live in someplace that snow alot.

 

yeah the uppers are pressed in so you gotta get the whole arm.