I'm with Rusnak on this (and posted in another thread, the pic of the magnificent tool!!!!!)...now that she has a few hundred miles on her,..I'm considering getting a bigger PipeWrench and rechecking that torque on that big boy...

Best!

Doyle

Don't get me wrong, I have the fancy schmancy balljoint socket too.

But to remove that nut with years of dirt and gunk in there, the pipe wrench is the way to go. Brace your foot on the wheel well, and use a breaker bar.

The fancy socket will do fine with clean dry threads for installation, just not for removal.

sorry, just can't see messing that whole giant nut thing if all I want to do is drop the a-arm to swap out the t-bar and bushings. why start messing with a perfectly good ball joint?
the OP was trying to determine the best way to drop the a-arm, not replace the ball-joint
Bill K

Just completed replacing the ball joints, tie rod ends, struts, and A Arm bushings on my 87. If all you need to do is replace the sway bar I would leave the ball joint alone. Removed my by removing the A Arm,clamping it in a vice and beating on the nut with a hammer and chisel. Made a socket for the ball joint nut install using a cheap 1.5 inch socket.

You should just need to remove one A Arm (3 bolts on the front mount and 1 on the rear), once the A Arm is loose you can reposition it and work the sway bar out of it's bushing. Once the first one is off disconnect the two under car sway bar mounts and wiggle it out from the other A Arm.

Buy some spray silicon lube and soak the four sway bar bushings before trying to remove it.

Ha! Thanks. That's exactly where im at right now... off come the upper shock bolts..

Several people have said that removing the ball joint bottom nut is easier, and that removing the pin that holds the top of the ball joint can be a problem.

I have an '81 and on the driver's side, both the nut and pin came out easy. On the passenger side, the ball joint nut would not budge. Not with hammer blows, PB Blaster, heat, nothing. The pin came out as expected.

I have the special (cheap version) tool for the ball joint nut on the way. I need it to re-install the driver's side. I have half a mind to loosen the ball joint on the passenger side just so I can get it lose and re-installed correctly while the a-arm is on the work bench. I hate knowing I have stuck parts on the car.

My impact wrench says its good for 300 ft-lbs. I am hoping it will blast it loose with the special tool socket. I'll do this after I re-install the driver's side in case I break the tool.

I guess I could buy a pipe wrench if this fails.

Contrary to JW, when replacing the BJ's the wedge pins and struts separated as expected, but in the end I had to cut the castle nuts off. They would not budge.
So my method was to back off the wedge nut until flush with the end of the bolt, put a piece of hard wood over the end and beat with a heavy ball peen till it popped. If you ruin the wedge bolt don't sweat it since you should replace it anyway.