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'04 N/A GP suspected bad ball joint

R

robinsone

New member
So I have an '04 with 176k and a suspected bad ball joint, at least as far as I can tell on the passenger side. Would it just be better for me to swap out the whole arm, maybe even both sides with the mileage, as I'm guessing if one is bad the other might not be too far behind. Let me know what you think, thanks.
 


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.
 


Scottydoggs said:
pretty sure its a 18 mm for the ball joint, and the lca's iirc are 21 mm and a t 55 torx.
Click to expand...

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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What are the torque specifications to the ball joint and the mounting bolts on an '04 GP control arm if anyone can let me know, thanks.
 


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