My new a-arms have new busings in them, from Bruce stone. i have the new ball joints and turbo tie rods. here is what i planned on doing after reading thru a couple threads and lookiing at the tech article on pelicaN

- take the pin out that holds the ball joint in the lower strut assembly.
because i am putting new a-arms and ball joints in, i figured i would just leave the old ball joint on the old A-arm, detach the old tie rod, after first pull the the ball joint down out of the strut, and then unbolting the A-arm under the car.
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upon reassembly should i put the new ball joint in the new A-arm, then put the A-arm in place, then the ball joint up into the strut and put the new pin in to secure it-

I have new ball joint nuts, washers etc as well and new retaining pin.

thanks in advance

Phil

I like the workflow mostly as you described. Doing most of the work while components on the car is helpful to me as it gives you move leverage to break bolts loose and torque them correctly to spec. So perhaps break the ball joint nut loose before removing the a-arm.

You might try unbolting the A arms after removing the balljoint pin. I had a helluva time removing the balljoint from the strut with the A arms bolted up...fighting the A arm rubber bushings to pull the arms down enough to remove BJ from strut. Just a thought.

i read a thread in the Classics, the guy suggested loosening the ball joint from the shock/strut first, then with a jack holding the rotor etc in place hitting down on the A-arm to dislodge it, and the spring tension of the a-arm while still in place helps some as well. i am not worried about getting the ball joint itself off of the a-arm in this situation, which seems for most to be the bigger issue.

another thing i was just reading about the tie rod removal on pelican- i am putting turbo tie rods in. The old tie rods have the u-joint, which has to be removed, actually the whole end connector needs to be unscrewed, taken off the rack- how hard is this? mine looks to be original so i am sure i will soak it with PB blaster. but in the comment section someone mentions that it is possible to damage the rack.

** So my question for ya'all is: how do i secure the end of the rack in such a way as to prevent any torsion on the rack that could cause damage while attempting to remove the old tie rod end (screwing it out)?

Thanks