Every listing I found shows the ball joint as a separate piece. The original joints are riveted onto the lower control arms and can be rather miserable to replace. As far back as the 1980s, we used an air chisel, much larger than the standard air chisels, with a cutting tool to shear off the tops of the rivets, then a pointed tool to force the rivets out. They expand when installed at the factory. That's what makes them hard to drive out.
Once you get them out, the new joints are held in with special, hardened bolts and nuts. On a lower control arm, put the bolt threads down with the nuts under the arm. Thar ensures the threads sticking up won't catch and tear the outer CV joint boot.
There's three points of interest to be aware of with this style of ball joint. First, due to the mounting holes being in a flange, and no two joints are ever exactly the same, the car will need to be aligned after this service. There is a trick you might consider before you start. If your steering wheel is straight now, and there is no pull to one side at highway speed, replace just one ball joint first, then go out for a test drive. The concern here is it's very likely the new joint will reposition the bottom of the wheel in or out, (left or right), just a little compared to where the old joint had it sitting. If so, a tire wants to roll in the direction it's leaning so it's important that "camber" is near equal on both front wheels. Camber is one of the three main alignment angles. It is the inward or outward tilt of the wheel, as viewed from in front of the car, looking back at it. Also, due to the inter-related geometry of the steering and suspension systems, a change in camber causes a change in "toe". That's the direction that wheel is steering when the steering wheel is straight ahead. That causes a steer to one side, (which is different from a pull to one side). To counteract that steer, you have to turn the steering wheel until toe is equal on both front wheels. To say that a different way, a change in camber causes a change in the position of the steering wheel.
Where my trick comes in is if you replace just one ball joint, then on the test drive you find the steering wheel is still straight, there's a really good chance the new joint didn't cause a significant change in camber.
That's when you replace the other lower ball joint, then do another test drive. If the steering wheel is straight again, there is a chance you can get away without an alignment, but keep an eye on tire wear patterns, specifically a featheredge pattern. That always shows up on both front and / or on both rear tires, equally, except for minor differences due to a number of other variables. Any mechanic can show that to you or check for it at each oil change. Pulling and an offset steering wheel show up right away after any service to the steering or suspension systems. Tire wear takes many miles to show up.
The reason this trick doesn't work if you replace both joints at the same time is you could end up with wildly out-of-specs camber and / or toe, but if both specs are equal on both front wheels, you'll still have no pull and a straight steering wheel, but you'll have horrendous tire wear and usually miserable handling. You won't know which wheel, or if both, are out of alignment.
GM front-wheel-drive cars are pretty forgiving of unequal camber, so you may not see a pull to one side after the ball joints are replaced. This is where you need to observe the position of the steering wheel, and handling, and over time, tire wear.
For my next comment of value, if you do find a complete lower control arm with the ball joint already installed, you'll need to remove the two lower pivot bolts. The important point here is those bolts must be left loose, then drive the car around a few hundred feet, or at least set it on the tires, then bounce it a few times to settle the rubber bushings, THEN crawl underneath to tighten the bolts without jacking the car up. It has to be sitting at normal "curb height". We do that with the car on a drive-on hoist. This clamps the bushings in their at-rest state, then they can handle the normal bouncing up and down of the car. If you tighten the control arm bolts with the car jacked up and the control arms hanging down, that clamps the bushings in a permanent twist. When you hit a bump in the road that makes the wheel move up, it will over extend the bushings, leading to rapid failure. If you mention the recent service to the alignment specialist, he will usually loosen those bolts on his alignment rack, bounce the car, then retighten them.
Nov 10, 2026 at 7:39 PM
