Like the title says, I'm working on my car and I can't get one of my upper ball joints to seat enough to tighten it. It's about an 1/8" from tight. The upper control arm will still move. I've jacked the car up by the lower arm until it comes off the stand, and it still won't seat. The damned ball joint still just spins when I turn the nut. I'm out of ideas. It won't tighten or loosen now.

 

you need a big *** pry bar. like a 4 footer. and an extra set of hands would help. use the bar and work the angles. it'll go with the right angle and pressure

 

What am I prying? Suspension up? Upper control arm down? I tried upper down with no success. Thanks for the reply.

 

hmm I dunno. I've had my knuckles/UCA/LCA apart tons of times, and I've always just grabbed the UCA and yanked it down until the ball joint stud goes thru the hole in the knuckle, and installed the nut, then torqued to spec.

 

That's what I usually do. I'm the same way. I've had mine off at least half a dozen times. The drivers side went back together fine, but the passenger side didn't tighten up all the way before it started spinning. Like I said, it's only about an 1/8" off. I can rattle the upper control arm, so I know it's too loose. This has turned into such a PITA.

 

try jacking it from the LCA, then pry down on it from above at the UCA

 

pull the whole arm off and use a vice to press it in maybe?

 

That won't work for the parts in question. Much too heavy and cumbersome.

Jacking the LCA and then prying down on the UCA sounds like a good idea. You should be able to get the UCA near the frame rail by jacking up the LCA, then pry down between the frame rail and UCA with a pry bar or large screwdriver or something.

 

Put a brick or something in the wheel well (where the uca would bottom out) and then jack it up because you'll be eliminating the clearence...hope this helps g/l

 

Jack up on the lca and hit the ball joint with a impact. I know you shouldnt do this normally. But it works everytime I have this same problem