Torque specs for front LCAs, ball joints, strut? Topic is solved

[jonesg]

Did you bolt the strut and axle up before putting the ball joint into the control arm? My problem, once the ball joint is bolted back in place, plus the control arm, is getting the stut bolts realigned and bolted back up and the axle bolted back into the hub without over stressing anything.

I didn't disconnect the strut .
It wasn't that big of a deal to do.
I changed the balljoint, the one they sold me was the wrong size, I hit it with a grinder and made it fit, turns out there are different sizes.
First time is difficult but second time goes easier..

[gnalan]

Thankfully my neighbor was nice enough to let me borrow his floor jack, because I couldn't do this without it. It's pretty bad when it takes a 17mm 1/2" drive socket on a 16" breaker bar with the use of a 3 1/4 ton floor jack to lift up on the breaker bar to get the front most bolt out of the bushing. That's after soaking the threads several times with PB Blaster, over two days, and letting it sit. I tried to jack the engine/transmission up to get a 1/2" drive impact wrench on it but still didn't have enough room for it.

Next time, which I hope isn't anytime soon, hopefully it'll go a lot easier.

Back to removing the bolt, and then putting it back together again. I have about 3 hours of daylight left, and it's dropping into the 30s tonight so I don't want to be messing with it after the sun goes down.

[abscate]

30 seconds of heat on the nut would have made that a lot easier. excessive torque is never the best answer for stuck fasteners.

Look up the torque value on fasteners before you loosen them. If the loosening force is mire than 50% , it’s heat, penetrating lubricant ( not WD40) , time, impact

[gnalan]

30 seconds of heat on the nut would have made that a lot easier. excessive torque is never the best answer for stuck fasteners.

Look up the torque value on fasteners before you loosen them. If the loosening force is mire than 50% , it’s heat, penetrating lubricant ( not WD40) , time, impact

It was the bolt through the frame rail into the front bushing. I don't know what it was torqued down to before, but it was way too much. 47 ft-lbs plus 105 degrees is what it should have been torqued to.

I tried with a 1/2" impact, but didn't have enough room for it even with the engine and transmission jacked up about an inch maybe an inch and a half.