I did the ball joint test the other day (jack up the control arm and lift just the tire with something) and saw a ton of play in the lower ball joint. I bought a new lower control arm, which may or may not have been a great idea........
With the old ball joint still installed, it was tough to see just how bad it was. But with it off and the boot removed....... Yowzers!
It was dry. The grease zerk on top had come off (or was never installed?) and I could look down into the joint. And lots of play up and down even by hand.
Getting the arm out. That was a chore. I was able to separate the torsion bar from the torsion key, but it did not want to come out of the control arm. And the sway bar link was frozen and had to be cut off. But the arm actually came out fairly easy- with the torsion bar still attached.
I spent some time torching the control arm but I figured there's so much metal, it's tough to actually get any meaningful heat into it with the torch I have. Lots of PB Blaster was sprayed on it. I used an old socket held with a pair of channel locks on the end of the torsion bar and hit it with my BFH. Nothing. I decided that since this arm was trash anyway, I'd take the Sawzall and see if I could cut into the arm at the hex and relieve that clamping force. I didn't get all the way through it, but I got close.
I went back to the BFH method and started seeing progress. Eventually it popped out.
The old arm:
The sway bar end link:
You can see how the outer sleeve has become one with the inner bolt.
Reinstalling was fairly straight forward. But I did need to clearance the sides of the bump stop and bottom of the shock attachment to fit the new control arm. My grinder made pretty easy work of it. I used anti-seize on the torsion bar ends just in case I'm ever back in there doing this again.
The bushings at the frame pivot point were still good shape. Buying the whole arm probably was not the best choice financially. Oh well.
I've still got a fair amount of torsion bar adjuster bolt sticking out. I don't think I'll need new keys for the amount of lift I want to do.
On road impressions are great. I never thought the front end felt bad when hitting bumps, but now it feels very solid. Even driving around with a half connected sway bar is barely noticeable.