Does the Ball Joint pivot inside of the
 

lower control arm? My ball joint broke off last night while slowly turning onto a residential streeet soooo...I changed out my LCA today. Everything went fairly smoothly(no spring compressor) Here's the problem: I am unable to reseat the ball joint inside the knuckle. It seems as though the small curvature in the stem has gotten twisted. Is it possible to twist(pivot) the ball joint to realign it?

I assume that "the small curvature" you're refering to is the machined cut-out on the ball joint's stud which fits upwards into the wheel carrier? If so yes you can grasp it with a pair of pliers and twist/rotate it so that the cut out will align with the wheel carrier and the bolt which secures them together.

Yup. Its called a "ball" joint for a reason. It is designed to pivot in many directions. I have not looked at an MB setup closely, but with most cars the ball joint is rotated anyway when the wheel is turned. So it pivots both left to right when wheel moved up and down. And it twists when turning.

When new it might be pretty hard to twist, even with a pliers. But it will.

Thanks guys. It seemed pretty stiff and I didn't want to damage it.

Any tricks for getting the stud back into the wheel carrier? I'm pretty sure that it shouldn't be this difficult. Everything this is aligned, but it just won't get past the lip. I'll try to post pics.

hey dablk1,

i replaced the ball joints about a year and a half ago, so i cant recall all of the details. however, if my memory serves me correctly, the drivers side knuckle was a piece of cake to install, whereas the passenger side knuckle literally took us a couple of hours.

my advice:

find a helper (4 hands are better than 2, in this case :))

make sure that the inside of the steering knuckle is clean, cause i think i remember finding some debris in there.

i'm not sure if its ok to do this, so you may want to ask an MB expert befre doing so, but i think we used a wedge to open the knuckle a bit.

good luck

It is a very tight fit; I assume you did not completely disconnect the wheel carrier from the shock and steering? Now it's sort of hanging above the ball joint and its stud?

As has been mentioned the receptacle in the wheel carrier needs to be perfectly clean, a wire brush in a drill is a good start, but that will only get the surface rust. If you have a dremel or other die grinder with a stone that can reach up inside there you can use that or you need a small file or something similarly hard to scrape any rust too thick to wire brush away. Make sure that the compound the factory installs into the slot which hardens over time, is fully removed and not protruding into the receptacle

The FSM recommends against it but I haven't found any other way but to place a cold chisel into the slot and hammer it to spread the receptacle enough to allow the stud to slide into place. I try not to go crazy but it usually takes at least 4 or 5 - 3 lb hammer blows to wedge the chisel and on occasion I've had to repeat that. I'm in New England so my strategy is to completely remove the wheel carrier to facilitate this pre-assembly prep work easier, down south or out west maybe one can drop the LCA down and get things back together but not around here!

You need the receptacle cleaned and opened because if you try to use excessive force to put it together you can damage the ball joints cup by putting to much downward force on it as you try to force the stud into position. Good Luck!

Thanks guys. I actually used my dremel to get that stuff out of there and then just began tapping light with my 6lb sledge and it worked itself in. Put everything back together and it's nice a secure. I'm doing the tie rods next, I didn't have them on hand. After that i will be time for an alignment.