Help: Control Arm ball joint won't fit back into strut housing

[BronzitIsBeautiful]

Hello everybody,

Relatively new owner of a 1987 325ic here and first time poster. The front shocks were blown on my e30 and I bought a set of bilstein sports to replace them. The disassembly went more or less according to the bentley manual, with the exception that getting the strut off the control arm outer ball joint was a bit of struggle, and required me trying to compress the struts up with a jack and using a tie rod separator to squeeze it out. I went ahead and replaced the inserts, and put the assembly back together with the stock springs, then mounted the top of the shock assembly to the top of the strut tower with the three nuts. However, no matter what I've tried I can't seem to get the control arm to go low enough to get the bolt part of the ball joint back under and through the strut housing. Pushing down on the control arm all the way (as far as I can push it myself while still handling the strut, at least) there's still maybe an inch left to clear. Control arm is detached from the sway bay end links/lollipop already.

Stuff I've tried:

1. Removing the strut assembly from the top, threading the ball joint through the strut housing first, and trying to guide the assembly back up into the strut tower. Geometrically impossible, and dumb to even try in retrospect.

2. Disconnecting the back end of the control arm held on by the two 17mm bolts. Though this would maybe allow the control arm to pivot around the inner ball joint enough to wiggle up under the strut housing at some angle. Not as far as I can tell.

3. Compressing the spring with spring compressors. The spring compressors on loan from autozone are too chunky to get up too far into the strut tower, and the new strut inserts are too stiff anyway to want to compress (the blown out ones could be easily moved by hand).

4. Using a jack to compress the strut assembly. Rather than compressing the assembly, this just pushes the whole assembly towards the front of the car.

Any trick to this I am missing? Has anyone encountered this and found a way to do this before?

I realize that if I disconnect the inner ball joint from the control arm, the control arm should probably drop enough to slide back into the strut housing, but trying to get at that 22mm nut with 28 years of rust on it, then dropping the bolt, seems like it'd be a real PITA. Any way around this?

Thanks!

Ball joint position with control arm not depressed:



Ball joint position while pulling down on control arm, still doesn't drop nearly low enough:

[36brua]

By any chance did you compare the length of old and new shocks before assembly?
Is the top of the spring seated in the mount correctly ?
If your control arms are 28 yrs old it is most likely time to change them

[monty23psk]

is the steering arm connected to the bottom strut? I assume it is not. If it is, loosen it to give the strut housing room to turn on the strut bearing housing. Also there is only one way to get the strut bearing into the chassis, I assume you did that correct.

Did you replace the outer control arm ball joint? Looks the boot is nice and clean for a CA the rusty.

[Mr. Tasty]

I have never had this issue. Just compress the strut housing with a floor jack and maneuver to the control arm shaft.

Maybe you messed up the "lollipop" position and have it preloaded too much.

[BronzitIsBeautiful]

I was able to get the drivers side on today, and I see what you guys are suggesting. On that side, I was able to clear the bottom of the strut housing, and once the ball joint thread was angled in a little bit, I could compress the strut with a floor jack enough to then get it in straight.

For some reason the passenger side is worse though... and attempting to jack up the strut without any the control arm thread in at all just pushes it toward the front of the wheel well (it is apparently much easier for the strut to move sideways than compress, so long as the control arm is off and it can wiggle to and fro freely). If there was some way to keep the strut from angling forward and instead be compressed by the jack, I think I could get it in... Any ideas?

But yeah in the meantime I've disassembled it and will put it back together tomorrow, although I don't think I did it incorrectly. And yeah, I'd be nice to replace the control arms but on the other hand, pretty much everything on the car is 28 years old and on my budget I sort of have to triage what gets replaced first. They are original, and while rusty the ball joints do still look pretty good.

[Mr. Tasty]

sway bar end link could be causing you issues. Since the one side is connected, it is pushing the opposite side control arm up.

[AndrewBird]

Disconnect your sway bar link for sure. The arm won't drop enough without it disconnected.

[achan37]

I actually have the exact same problem that I am experiencing right now as the OP, and was hoping to see if anyone could offer an answer or suggestions. I recently replaced my springs, shocks, and control arms, and I just cannot get the control arm screw to fit under the strut housing.

I also noticed a similar situation to the OP's second post where the passenger's side is far worse in terms of how far away the screw is from the strut opening.

Would really appreciate any help or suggestions on how I could fix this. Thanks!