Thread: '04 N/A GP suspected bad ball joint

Replace the whole LCA, I would do both as they are cheap. Can be had for 50ish each. Make sure to get an alignment after, also look into tie rod ends and sway bar end links and bushings in case they look bad while you are under the car.

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Yea just swap the whole arm. You'll hate the effort you have to put into them just to replace the bushing on the existing one.

Originally Posted by REDCOMPG

Yea just swap the whole arm. You'll hate the effort you have to put into them just to replace the bushing on the existing one.

Unless the bolt seizes to the bushing then the job just got really fun.

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Grinder + torch

pretty sure its a 18 mm for the ball joint, and the lca's iirc are 21 mm and a t 55 torx.

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

pretty sure its a 18 mm for the ball joint, and the lca's iirc are 21 mm and a t 55 torx.

You may want to go buy a cheap 18mm wrench w/ a box end that you can grind down so you can fit the box end in between the balljoint and cv axle. An open end wrench will strip the nut if the nut is really tight


If you have access to a hydraulic press changing the ball joints out and not the whole arm isn't bad and saves yo a few bucks. But if you have to drill them out it can be a pain. I've done it twice. It's quite a royal PITA

I used an open end wrench without problems, broke it free with closed end, off rest of the way with the open end. I only almost broke the castle nut because I had the wrench up too far on it. You really just wanna worry about not rounded out the torx bolt.

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I just got them tight as I could

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tight works well.