I Just baught a 91 civic. 1.5 lt. I need to replace the upper balljoint, and when I ordered the part it said it came with the uppercontrol. Does anyone know what kind of job this is going to be? And do i need to drop the strut to do this? Thanks for the help...

 

its fairly easy, and yes you would have to drop the shock/spring...what you can do is, take off the balljoint cover with (10mm bolts)...pop off the balljoint with a pickle fork...then loosen the 14mm shock bolts and 17 mm Upper control arm nuts. then i would loosen the shock fork bolt (14mm)...now take off the nuts for the shocks and pull it out of the shock fork...then you can take off the upper control arm...

to install do the reverse...

 

since you already ordered the whole arm, yes, youre going to have to take out the shock completely to be able to get the upper arm in and out.

its kind of stupid how the upper arm has that bridge. without it, it would make swapping the whole suspension assembly a lot easier. ive seen my friend just cut off that bridge completely when he prepares his racecar. its useless.

btw, since oyu have a 91, you could have just ordered a replacement balljoint for less money though an aftermarket supplier. thats ok tho, at least you have new bushings now.