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04 December 2013

Project Lazarus: Front Suspension Rebuild, Part 3

As you saw in Part 2, one of the upper control arms still had a ball joint installed in the arm:

It took some scraping of road grime, but I finally uncovered the snap ring holding the ball joint in place: 

I drafted my mom to help pop the snap ring over the lip of the ball joint, as I needed three hands (no vise!) to hold the thing, operate the inside snap ring plies (with the tips on the ends of the snap ring) and prying with a flat head screw driver. Here is the result: 

Man, my HF 20T press is getting a workout: 

Yes, the arm is sitting on one of the hubs: 

The ID of the hub was just about perfect for supporting the flat part of the UCA while pressure was applied to the ball joint to pop it loose! 

I do see why the fancier presses have assisting apparatuses for moving the saddle (is that the right term? I am forgetting at the moment) up and down. I really need to cut some thinner arbor plates. LOL! 

Here is the displaced ball joint:

It pried loose easily once it reached that point. I love press fit things!

Here is what the ball joint looked like when the boot was removed:  

Holy crap! That is really terrible. It felt ok with the boot on! The boot really made it feel substantial. That is pretty scary that it was that bad. I am wondering if that is how bad the joints on my CRX are right now . . . 

I want to find out what this coating is: 

Whatever it is, it sealed the joint between the ball joint and UCA very well:

Ugh: 

Hundreds of thousands of miles of road gunk. I am not looking forward to cleaning all that off . . . 

Getting ahead start: 

I scraped off a lot of the crud after it warmed up and was easier to scrape. I am letting both of the UCAs sit in the bucket overnight. I'll get the bucket filled up again tomorrow with hot soapy water and keep on scrubbing, if I feel up to it. (I'm coming down with something. Blech.)  

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