I lubed the front end because of a clunking sound when I turned the wheel to discover that the upper ball joint boot on the passenger side is almost ripped in half ( not the side I just got done working on) The suspect seems to be the sway bar bushing bolt , or whatever its called.... look at the pic and tell me what you think , should I have cut some of the bolt off when I put the new bushings in on that side ?

 

No, that sway bar link bolt looks right to me. It's got to be long, otherwise you wouldn't be able to compress the rubber bushings.
I don't think that hit your upper BJ.

- Eric

 

Looks like the jiffy-lube nut put the air-powered grease gun on it and pumped it till the seal blew. I have seen this a lot and is one of the reasons I do my own work.

I see a suspension rebuild in your future, cause if you are going to change the boot, might as well change the ball joint, etc, etc.......................

 

must of been the garage that i had the alignment done at , i really wish they would of fixed that .... you cant tell me they didnt hear a pop , not to mention grease shot all over the place.... well now I will have to put the pickle fork to use again and put a new boot on , I may even replace the balljoint too , since its now bolted on vs rivets which will make it an easy swap.

 

... And while he's got the arm off, might as well change the LCA bushings, and while that's off, might as well clean and paint the frame, but to get better access, might as well remove the fender liners, and while they're out, how's that blower fan looking, and while it's out...

This sounds vaguely familiar, somehow.

- Eric

 

lol , yea that side was done already about 4yrs ago before I lost my restoration place.... all the control arm bushings , ball joints , sway bar bushing , outer tierod , and I even sanblasted the control arms , spring , and sanded and wire wheeled the frame on that sided and POR15 the parts with my 25gal compressor with my walmart sandblast gun so naa naa

 

If the numbnut heard the pop, would he have stopped and told the customer that he just caused 150 bucks worth of damage?
I doubt it...

Yes it does...
Dude, have I got a thread for you!!
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...storation.html

 

sounds like a job for you , ill be right over.... make room in your garage

 

although a ripped boot makes a mess and will eventually lead to dirt/water etc getting into the joint, it does not mean the ball joint is bad now. Jack up under the control arm and use a pry bar under the tire to see if the ball joints have movement. then with the car on the ground have an assistant shake the wheel back and forth to check the tie rod ends. My money says the noise is from the control arm bushings.....seems to be a common prob on the a-bodies. Also, the alignment is done using shims on the upper control arms, not the ball joints, so it prob wasnt the alignment shop that did it.....just my $.02

 

yea , ill have to check the balljoint before I replace it , but im thinking there is no way it could be a control arm bushing , because I replaced them all except for the lower control arm bushings on the other side.....I still am curious what could of ripped such a big hole in the boot.... I always filled the boots up with grease till they purge out a little , so wouldnt the same thing happen to the mechanic ? even if he had one of those air powered grease guns , wouldnt the grease just purge out the bottom of the boot ?.... seems like those boots are pretty tough.

 

I wonder if there is a burr on a piece of metal rubbing on it when the control arm goes up and down under normal driving conditions.

 

well , at a quick glance it seems the lower control arm bushings are fine.... or at least the bolt is still in the middle and not off to one side or anything , so it must be that balljoint that was clunking..... the clunk almost completely dissapeared at this point since the lube job , but im gonna wait a few more days and see if it completely goes away all together. I still need to find time to at least replace that boot though.