How to know the ball joints are gone
 

I am going to be doing some front end work for my 1993 Honad Accord DX and will be finally be replacing the calipers as well as the bearings. As I look over this job I was wondering how much harder it would be and if I should replace the upper and lower ball joints. The car just turned 207K.

In reviewing the video again how hard is it to get those joints out of the upper and lower control arms? they look pressed in.

Thanks,
Bob

Pretty sure the uppers are part of the arm...? Know they are for the 3rd and 5th gens as I have done those several times.

So me, be prepared to do the lowers. Once a part, check both upper and lower. If the lowers are gone, replace while doing the work. The lowers are pressed in, there are some hand tools that can do this or a shop press....just be sure to remove the "clip" :)

If the uppers are bad, well yes they need to be replaced but not near as much "re-work" needed to do those later....simple version of the uppers, jack the car up (safety), remove the tire. remove/loosen upper ball joint nut, remove two nuts holding the arm to the car/frame, remove arm from knuckle....reverse.....done.

Again, the manual I have (suspect) for the 4th gens shows the upper ball joints as part of/made to the upper control arms.

Again, just me.

I am getting ready to do mine. When you say remove the arm from the knuckle, are those the two horizontal bolts up in the corners of the wheel well? Looks very tight in there and no room for an impact.

Not sure what you are trying to repair.

To remove the upper or lower control arm from the knuckle, just unbolt the ball joint. Then you have to separate the ball joint from the knuckle.

No that is not right at all.

The knuckle is the part that the hub is in.

The are is bolted to the bottom of the knuckle with a ball joint.

I heat it up with a torch and then pop it off with a ball joint fork.

Got it taken care of. I needed to replace the upper ball joint, so I got a complete upper arm. While I was in there, I replaced the really ratty sway bar end bushings.

The only thing I need to go back and check is the torque on the two bolt the go horizontally through the upper arm mount.

Same for the sway bar bushing nut. Not sure how much to tighten it.

The sway bar bushing nut is fine just a bit past snug, the 2 bolts through the upper arm mount you should tighten to spec.