supported car by thrust arm stud (carefully) still won't come out....

[ryan roopnarine]

i undid the thrust arm nut and put a seperate bottle jack under the stud (making sure i didn't damage it). i used it to jack up the strut assembly (until it couldn't compress anymore). then i raised the car up using another jack, and backed it off just enough so that, effectively, the jack under the thrust arm was holding up the weight of the car (the other jack under the body of the car was set so that there was only a tiiinnnyy bit of slack), ie, if the bottle jack gave way, the car would transfer weight to the second jack, NOT fall on it. i pickle fork'd and hammered with the 2.5lb hammer (the "mini-sledge", as i can't bear to swing a full sized one that close to my fender) to no avail for a long while after. the car sat supported by the thrust arm stud for a good hour or so, it should have loosened it up somewhat. do i need to just take off the strut plate now? i have a feeling that it won't come off easily, and that is why i haven't done it yet.

[winfred]

did you wang on it while it was under pressure? that's usually the trick, hit the side of the plate that the ball joint goes through near the joint while it's under some pressure

[632 Regal]

or heat...I had to use an aceteline torch to get mine to pop, Bill recommends taking it all out and working it on a bench or vice.

[M-what]

i undid the thrust arm nut and put a seperate bottle jack under the stud (making sure i didn't damage it). i used it to jack up the strut assembly (until it couldn't compress anymore). then i raised the car up using another jack, and backed it off just enough so that, effectively, the jack under the thrust arm was holding up the weight of the car (the other jack under the body of the car was set so that there was only a tiiinnnyy bit of slack), ie, if the bottle jack gave way, the car would transfer weight to the second jack, NOT fall on it. i pickle fork'd and hammered with the 2.5lb hammer (the "mini-sledge", as i can't bear to swing a full sized one that close to my fender) to no avail for a long while after. the car sat supported by the thrust arm stud for a good hour or so, it should have loosened it up somewhat. do i need to just take off the strut plate now? i have a feeling that it won't come off easily, and that is why i haven't done it yet.

I just got done replacing the thrust arm and the lower control arm today. Spent or wasted 2.5 on trying exactly what you did/tried. I got the same result. I finally decided to take the plate off the bottom of the struct (3 bolts) and pulled the whole thing out. I could not believe how easy and quick it was, I sprayed the bolts with penetrating lube. The ball joints came out with one swing. I put in new arms so did not care about the existing ball joints. You can do a search and find detailed write up with pictures here somewhere. After decision to pull the plate off, I got both sides done in 1.5 hours. Good luck

[Bill R.]

was the easiest most idiot proof method that i could come up with, after experimenting with a number of methods and guessing that most of you won't have the correct pullers or tools this is the simplest i found.

i undid the thrust arm nut and put a seperate bottle jack under the stud (making sure i didn't damage it). i used it to jack up the strut assembly (until it couldn't compress anymore). then i raised the car up using another jack, and backed it off just enough so that, effectively, the jack under the thrust arm was holding up the weight of the car (the other jack under the body of the car was set so that there was only a tiiinnnyy bit of slack), ie, if the bottle jack gave way, the car would transfer weight to the second jack, NOT fall on it. i pickle fork'd and hammered with the 2.5lb hammer (the "mini-sledge", as i can't bear to swing a full sized one that close to my fender) to no avail for a long while after. the car sat supported by the thrust arm stud for a good hour or so, it should have loosened it up somewhat. do i need to just take off the strut plate now? i have a feeling that it won't come off easily, and that is why i haven't done it yet.