1990 front ball joints bad... should I go for the whole arm????

[fivehunsky]

Hey, This is my first post so forgive me if this is a stupid 240 question. I just purchased a 90 240 and the front balls are almost gone. I was wondering if It was worth the extra cash to go with an upgraded control arm while I was under there. I didnt know if the stock pieces were good enough to leave alone or not. Also, if the joints were really worn out, could that ruin the control arms so that I would have to get new ones anyway? I plan on swapping to a CA and a decent coilover setup and hitting the local track days. Would the aftermarket arms provide anything over stock arms and if so, what is a good brand to look at? Thanks for ANY help you guys can throw my way.

[180fan]

you can find stuff like moog ball joints but they're more down time. I bought new lca's and just deal with them that way.

[BlackTopBomber]

i did my front ball joints in two hours. and thats from start to finish. step one buy new ball joints, 38.95 at auto zone, rent ball joint press 100 bux from autozone, but you get all of that back when you return it. jack up car ,remove wheels, etc. place cinder block under LCA, remove the front spindle/knuckle/tie rod, and tension rod, and strut. still under 20 minutes, and thats working slow. remove c-clip from around ball joint, pound the F*** out of the old ones til they fall out, USE BIG HAMMER, BIGG HAMMER. take new one put it in place use press that you rented to press in the new ones, and replace w/ new c-clip. and replace everything that you removed. this should take about 2 hours to do, and only cost you about 80 bucks total. and get a friend and you can cut it down to an hour. new lca's are just over kill, any thing after market in that are is only needed if you are the worst driver on the planet, and like to hit things and brake lca's like tooth picks, or if you are making serious power in that car, and constantly pound on it everyday. but that still they will hold up to 400hp on a brake stand. save your money and put it towards things that cost alot of money, like a motor swap, or coilovers, or what ever your fancy may be.

[ddgsxr504]

Nissan (in this respect) is stupid. New LCA's are overkill and totally not worth the $300+ just for new ball joints. Whoever pays this kind of money and has perfectly fine control arms with blown ball joints just because they say you can't replace them is stupid.

[madcowvert]

i pound the F*** out of the old ones til they fall out, USE BIG HAMMER, BIGG HAMMER. .

i'm not sure if you know this but you can use the tool to also take them out it's very fast and easy and you won't need a BIG HAMMER.... FYI

[crash n burn]

true, but its the easiest way to get them out. Took me 3 hits.

and a new LCA is lame unless you like to go curb hopping and need it.

[ishkabibble]

New LCA's are overkill and totally not worth the $300+ just for new ball joints.

They are $65 ea where I shop for parts.

[ddgsxr504]

They are $65 ea where I shop for parts.

Where might that be??

Also I meant $300 for both. The cheapest I can find them is $180 each.

[ishkabibble]

rockauto.com... I believe their LCAs are $69ea and there's always a 5% coupon floating around.

[180fan]

I bought em for about 150 new oem for the pair. Not too shabby considering with a new lca you don't have to deal with the bs of torching out old worn out bushings and the possibility of messing up the outer part of the lca when extracting the ball joint, and if you've already got a busy schedule having that extra time is always a major plus.

[sean58888]

yo check these out dude !! http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...22046

[ddgsxr504]

Nice..... except for the price. Unless you are a top level racer or plan on slamming your car to ground that's outta my price range.

[positron1]

You might as well shell out a couple of extra bucks and get the new control arms. I got a new set with new bushings and ball joints already pressed in for a little more than $50 each. The new ball joints by themselves were around $60 each so I saved a little time, effort and money by just getting a new set.

http://www.pdm-racing.com/products/suspension.html

[ddgsxr504]

If I were to buy those at PDM I would want the ones with the whiteline poly bushings intalled but god d@mn son.... $250 each. I can just buy the arms and get energy suspension poly inserts for like $40 each.

[180fan]

Yeah the prices at PDM were a bit high.

Those Orange lca's look like Ikeya Formulas...

[Spiker]

isn't it 60 each side for the arm everything pressed in and 110 for the one with the whitelines? how did u get 250 each.. o.o but you would still save liek 40 bucks if u did it the autozone way, however u dont get those new bushings u only get the new balljoint... i think its a good deal from pdm.

[positron1]

I think Pdm has a good deal on those too. For example, if you were to buy an OEM set from Nissan they are $90-$100 each without the bushings and ball joints(OEM parts from the dealer don't seem to come with any hardware). I bought a set of new front sway bar endlinks and they came with no hardware, screws and washers, luckily I had a set that I had pulled at the junkyard earlier with the hardware. Then, you have to spend money to get new bushings and new ball joints and if you don't have a press you have to pay or rent one to get them pressed in. However, if you want those aftermarket ones they are expensive but they too are a one-shot deal...everything together.

[ddgsxr504]

isn't it 60 each side for the arm everything pressed in and 110 for the one with the whitelines? how did u get 250 each.. o.o

If you look in my sig, I drive an S14...

stock arms with new ball joints and rubber bushings $173

stock arms with new balljoints and whiteline bushings $250

So PDM is cheaper than the dealer but only by $7. At least if I drive to the dealer I don't have to pay shipping.

[fivehunsky]

Thanks alot for all the info. I appreciate it.

[Spiker]

oh but he said 1990 which is an s13 so i was looking @ the cheaper s13 ones