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86 Stanza rear control arms & front ball joints
Alright, after some sandy adventures my car got stuck and had to be pulled out. Unfortunately, I bought the car with smashed in rear end, which meant no tow loop to hook on to, as I apparently overlooked that item while doing repairs. So, the guy had to strap his tow line to my rear control arm; naturally, since I was dug in pretty deep, I ended up with a slightly bent control arm. Now, the car pulls to the side ever so slightly, but you can still feel it.
Now, I see a good side here; the damaged control arm can be hammered/bent back out, BUT! I might as well bend the control arm on the other side to give me goode ole Neutral Toe-In. I found adjustable control arms on e-bay, but those are $200 a set, which is a bit more than the car is worth now, with all the repairs that need to be done to it. Does anyone know of a good place to get much cheaper adjustable control arms (I'm looking at $70 +- $20), or am I stuck with hammer and jackstand methods? Any good way of measuring toe-in in a DIY situation?
Second thing, my ball joint is sqeaking. A tech that failed me on safety 3 month ago said something about ball joint, but the car passed inspection since then. Assuming the seal was broken, and assuming sand got in the ball joint, and knowing I drove for 500 miles in such a condition, would I need a new joint, or would a simple re-grease and re-seal work? How do I check if the joint is alright?... I hope I won't need a new control arm, that would blow big time.
I can only hope changing the CV joint (that one is dead for sure) is not as much of a pain in the arse as I was led to believe...
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93 Sentra XE 5spd, running well... 82 924 Turbo under construction... 82 Suzuki GS650G, under construction... 76 Firebird Formula 5.7, waiting for the next summer.
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