Hey guys,
After driving for tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of miles you may start to feel your car hate you.
Bushings wear out and rot, suspensions components fall apart, engines blow up-- so much crap can go wrong!
If your're experiencing slight, infrequent wobbles on highways at speeds above 60 mph and you're getting clunking, popping sounds when you're turning your wheel while parking perhaps there's something more than voices inside of your head. Perhaps your ball joints are going!
Well, if you have an 05-06 RSX Type-S, then you're in luck because I'm going to show you how to replace your ball joints without buying a whole new $300 steering knuckle! You can just use some BB6 Prelude ball joints!
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Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any inconvenient or undesirable outcomes that may result from following these instructions.
Parts needed:
- 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" ratchets
- 8 mm, 10 mm, 12 mm, 17 mm, 19 mm, 22 mm, 36 mm
- Table Vice
- 2 lbs mallet
- 1 lbs hammer
- Sleeve to fit around inner diameter of ball joint to disperse hammer impact
- Cheater bar
- Flat head screw driver
- Phillips screw driver
- Pittman Tie-Rod Arm Puller
- Tie-Rod Separator Pickle Fork
- Impact gun (I used an old electric one, so if you brake a stud with your 180 gal compressor tank don't blame me)
- Chisel
- BB6 Prelude Lower Ball Joint (Information Taken from ClubRSX.com)
- Go to the following link to purcahse the ball joints that I purchased. Note, I am not responsible if problems ensue as a result of installing ball joints not specific to this car model.
- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000C9Q0VM/ref=pe_385040_30332200_pe_309540_26725410_item
Optional Parts:
- Puller (three-armed puller from Harbor Freight)
Start by removing your wheel. This will help a lot when you're doing things to your car...always know how to remove a wheel...
Lol, I know you know I'm joking. Take the damn wheel off.
Next, remove your wheel speed sensor cable and your brake line from your strut. These are my Tein Street Flex's...love these things. Pretty sure that the wheel speed sensor line (mounted on the bracket at the back of the strut) requires a 10 mm while the brake line requires a 12 mm socket (bracket closest to you in picture).
After you're finished with removing those lines, remove the brake caliper. The two outer-most bolts on the top and bottom of that big piece of metal are for the brake caliper. You're going to want to take the bottom one out and wiggle it a bit to loosen it up, then take the top one out. I believe this requires a 12 mm short socket.
With your caliper bolts removed from the caliper bracket, lift the caliper up and bungee cord it to your shocks. This will prevent the caliper from dangling by the brake line and eventually braking the line and spewing fluid everywhere. BRAKE FLUID EATS PAINT LOLZ.
Now you're going to want to remove this bracket shown in the next picture. It's the brake caliper bracket. The two bolts holding it to the knuckle are 17 mm bolts. Use a short socket and a 1/2" ratchet with a cheater bar and some rust penetrate to brake the bolts free.
Next, you'll want to remove the rotor from the hub. But first, you'll need to remove your spindle nut. You'll need a 36 mm socket for this and an impact gun.
First, take a flat head screw driver and pry the flange on the spindle nut away from the spindle.
Take the 36 mm socket and bang that jawn off of the spindle after using your flat head screw driver for the aforementioned step.
Now, you're going to need to remove the two phillips screws holding the rotor to the hub. They may be frozen on there from a long history of usage, so I recommend taking a phillips bit and putting it in a short socket. Then, take the socket and put it on a 1/4" ratchet and torque the screw off of the rotor. You can even hammer the bit into the screw lightly before using your ratchet to twist the screw out of the threads.
BE CAREFUL not to strip the screw. If you do, you're screwed! Use some more rust penetrate if you have to before you remove these screws.
The following picture shows the knuckle attached to the LCA with the C.V. Joint in the picture. Notice the castle nut which is in focus. It has a pin in it. This pin is called a "cotter pin." Remove the cotter pin from the castle nut.
Next you'll need your tie-rod separator pickle fork and your Pittman tie-rod arm puller. Both can be purchased from Harbor Freight for approximately $30.00
Place your Pittman arm puller in between the ball joint and the LCA. This will take some wiggling, so be prepared to be frustrated and afraid if this is your first time doing this.
Here's a better view of what your Pittman arm puller should look like. Tighten the bolt on the puller so that it rests on the end of the ball joint. In other words, the ball joint has a stud that sticks out (as a part of the ball-and-socket mechanism). Make sure your Pittman arm puller has its bolt tightened up against this "stud".
Next, insert your pickle fork in between the ball joint and the Pittman tool. Hit the end of the pickle fork with the 2 lbs mallet until the pickle ball joint and the LCA come apart. You will hear a loud "POP" noise when you do this. It's most likely due to miles of rust and wear on the components making them stick.
Here's a pic of what it will look like when the ball joint is separated from the LCA. You will be able to separate the LCA from the ball joint's "stud".
Now, remove the bolts and nuts holding the strut to the steering knuckle. The bolts shown in the picture below are both 19 mm bolts. However, the nuts which tighten the flanges of the bolts to the strut are located on the other side. These nuts (deez nuts) are 22 mm nuts. To remove the bolts, you must hold them still while rotating the 22 mm nuts on the other side of the steering knuckle.
The strut and the steering knuckle separated...
Now, look behind your dust guard (the black thing that sits behind the rotor). You will see this black thing which is bolted to your steering knuckle. This is a wheel speed sensor. Remove it using a 10 mm socket (I think...it may be an 8 mm socket).
Your final step will be to completely press the spindle from the hub. To do this I used a puller, but you could probably do this by having someone hold the axle while you pull the steering knuckle out. In other words, you'd save yourself about $20 at Harbor Freight.
Here's my steering knuckle...annoying as shit. The wheel bearing lies in that little cylinder that you see at the center of the picture.
Next, put your steering knuckle in your table vice. I used the part of the steering knuckle that bolts to the struts as the "clamping point" so-to-speak. You can use a cheater bar to turn the vice tighter to get a better grip if need be.
Here's the fun part! Take your 2 lbs mallet and bang away at the ball joint on the shown spot below! Try not to hit your thumb! :)
You can always use rust penetrant to help this process and the installation process as well. For the installation process just spray the penetrant around the hole and around the new ball joint. For the removal process, just spray the penetrant around where the ball joint goes into the hole.
Here's that stupid-ass old ball joint.
Here's that smart-ass new ball joint! :)
Place the steering knuckle in the vice and then place the new ball joint in the hole in the following way:
Hammer lightly AROUND the ball joint while it's in the hole. Make sure it does not go in the hole unevenly and make sure that the threads on the end of the ball joint are not contacting any surface below the vice while doing this.
To finish off the job, you can use a little socket-like jawn to go around the inner diameter of the ball joint's end. The fit of this tool is shown in the picture after the following picture.
You can fit the sleeve around the end of the ball joint in the following way to disperse the impact of the hammer around the end of the ball joint evenly. This will allow you to bang the ball joint in as hard as you want without messing it up by banging one side in more than another side.
Almost in!!! (That's what she said)
Notice how the seat of the ball joint is flush with the steering knuckle. This step (installing the ball joint) took me an hour my second time. Expect to take a while installing this ball joint. This step is normally done with a hydraulic press.
Take the ring off of the dust boot.
And if your ball joint is a CHEAP aftermarket replacement (like one from China) then put some more grease on the inside of the ball joint! Mine was a $50 AC Delco part, but I still decided to put some more grease in it.
Now, take the snap ring supplied with your ball joint and install it on the ball joint. Note that putting the grease on AFTER this step is probably a better idea than what I did, but we're not all perfect, now are we?
If your snap ring has holes on the ends to be able to use pliers to install it then good for you. If not you'll be fidgeting with screwdrivers and hammers for 20 minutes. You'll need a second person if the latter is applicable to you.
Re-install your dust boot and the ring on your dust boot.
Walk back to your RSX <3 .="" p="">
And pull your spindle back through your hub. I installed the nut on the spindle lightly so that the spindle would not fall back through the hub while I was re-installing it.
With the ball joint seated in your lower control arm (LCA), torque the castle nut. I used an impact gun for this and torqued it as tightly as I could to make sure nothing would come apart while I was driving.
Now, place the cotter pin that was supplied with your new ball joint into the ball joint's stud. Wrap the pin around the castle nut.
Now, re-install your strut bolts. Loosely tighten the 22 mm nut to the other side.
Put your rotor back onto your hub assembly and put your rotor's screws back on. Tighten them as reasonably as possible (don't tighten them on like a monkey, but don't tighten them on like a kitty).
Put your caliper brackets back onto your steering knuckle and place your brake pads into the brackets. Re-apply anti-squeal grease if you don't have much grease on the back of your pads.
Torque your spindle nut as much as possible with your impact gun and then notch the flange on the spindle nut by taking a chisel and a mallet to it. Notice that the flange is smashed into the groove in the spindle.
Now, bolt your wheel speed sensor, wheel speed sensor line bracket, and brake line bracket back onto your strut. In addition, re-install your caliper. Calipers are important for stopping. Stopping is good...unless you want to die.
Give everything a good torque (remember your strut bolts and everything else). Inspect all bolts and makes sure everything is tightened to spec and you're good! Put your wheels back on, torque them to spec, and take your car off of jacks!
Now you're good to go. Go test drive that bitch and have a good time! Until next time, enjoy yourself :)
