Help removing lower control arm

[c2 rower]

Well, the sqweaking from my front end was the torsion bars rubbing in the housing. So, I want to take the control arms out and put in those fancy elephant bushings. In order to separate the control arm from the strut, it seems like I have two options:

The first would be to remove the ball joint, but that requires a special tool for special nut slots instead of flats. The second method appears to be to remove the wedge bolt from the bottom of the strut. That's easy enough. How hard should it be to separate the pin of the ball joint from the bottom of the strut after the wedge bolt is out? I've wacked downward a bit to try and free things up, but nothing is moving.

Any suggestions?

[Jim Smolka]

Getting the pin out can be tricky. Be sure to get a new if you do remove it. Getting the ball joint nut off can be a real pain too. Sometimes is requires the special tool and a 3/4" impact. Sometimes one has to cut the nut in two. Besure to align the notch on the ball joint to the notch in the A-Arm.

Also, if the T-Bar will not come out, remove the end cap and then tap out. Consider replacing the bushings with bearings instead of the plastic type bushings.