Dizturbed One

Will be doing a rebuild in the coming weeks.

I need to take it in to have A-arm bushings and balljoints pressed in, and also to do the alignment afterwards. I just don't know if I'll actually save myself anything to try and do this front end myself, and was wondering what some of you guys have paid for this kind of work in the past.

I now live in an apartment and no longer have a compressor to do the work. It will be all hand tools. I would also need to buy a balljoint fork, jack stands, and a new breaker bar. I am a proficient mechanic and not intimidated by the work, but would rather not do a project in my apartment parking lot to save a meager 100-150 bucks or so. Gonna be doing the balljoints, A-arm bushings, inner and outer tie rods, and adjusting sleeves.

Also... What do you guys think of the expensive "problem solver" balljoints from moog? Much better than regular moog ball joints?

I'm doing this in conjunction with a bunch of other upgrades (more like maintenance really), adjustable panhard, springs all around, torque mount, poly endlinks all around, rear sway bar, and all the bushing to go with them. Cant wait to get it done

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (15)

the problem solvers joints are oversized to fit in control arms with worn out holes.

you will save good money if you take everything apart and just pay somebody to install the new bushings and joints. That should not cost much for labor, I have bushings and joints done years ago and the shop only charged me 30 bux a side labor.

you will may need a spring compresser for the springs. You can get them out, if you are careful, without one, and you can get them back in without one, but putting them back in with a compressor will make your life a lot easier. However, its a lot easier to use the spring compressor if you have air tools.

You can always ask a shop what they will charge to change the joints and bushings if you just bring them the car. See what they say, maybe it will be more reasonable than you think and will be cheaper to go that route.

1ADan

iTrader: (4)

"problem solver" is moog's basic replacement line. however, they do offer some oversized parts as well, usually designated with a suffix on the part number (the stock replacement moog for these cars would be K6145T, where as an oversized would be something like K6145T-01 or similar).

very good parts, replaced all my front end with em.

pressing out the bushing and ball joints its not something that's easy to do without power tools or a press. 86 is right, do the disassembly yourself and have a shop press everything for you. I think I paid about $40-50 to have everything swapped on my arms.

Dizturbed One

No worries about a spring compressor here, I'll be using a jack under the a-arm with the car close to the ground as a safety stop.

If I can get all the pressing done for $50-$60 bucks I'll definitely go that route. I just had no idea where pricing was at for that kind of stuff, never had it done before.

My main concern with the balljoints is getting some with really nice boots that will last a long time. One of the boots on my current joint popped like 7 years ago and requires frequent greasing, I'm done with doing that every 2 or 3 months and would like to go back to once a year greasing jobs in the spring, lol