Ball Joints on 2000 Windstar

I recently attempted to put new Ball joints on my 2000 Windstar. I have successfully completed the driver side and will do the other side later this week. The job is as simple as baking a pie, except you need much bigger hammers. :crying: The new "joint" comes with the control arm attached and only requires you to remove 3 bolts. The problem is (working off the ground) the new arm isn't quite alligned the way the old one comes off. The front arm is attached with a 13/16" (possibly 18mm) bolts through the frame with a 10mm end that is on the inside. The rear arm has the same bolt but it was difficult to remove because of the angle and being unable to have room to swing a hammer. You must use a series of prybars at various angles. Once removing the 10mm bolt that holds the ball joint, the arm will come out rather easily.
Now the fun begins!! :banghead: You have to put the front arm bolt in first and then manipulate the rear arm into position. The rear arm (for me) was ridiculously out of allignment and took a near miricle to get in place. :banghead: By removing the tie-rod-end, you will have all the play you need to position the arm back in place. :biggrin:
I will finish the other side tomorrow and then it is on to find out why my A/C isn't working. I hope this helps anyone that is about to attempt this. :naughty: Usually a slow leak you can recharge but I have no cold air coming out AT ALL. I'm sure it's the fuse or compressor relay.

Rob

was your van in an accident or something? I have a 2000 windstar, driven in the snowy north of Ontario Canada and I replaced my LCAs without problem, each side about 45 minute job. It was probably one of the easiest jobs I've done on my van. I didn't have the alignment problems you complain of and I certainly didn't need to remove the tie rod end. I don't mean to make myself out to be supermechanic (or you incompetant) but I don't want readers to think that this job has to be really bad.

FWIW, my:2cents:

Piper

NO accidents since I owned the vehicle. I bought it with 25K on it for $11,500 in 2003. I live in Buffalo NY area and the roads are beyond pathetic. I'm sure the potholes have taken their toll on the vehicle. Like I stated, the front arm was kind of on an angle and naturally you have to put that one in first. The rear one was a bit out of allignment so I had to use some persuasion, if you know what I mean. :biggrin: I have some really bad luck when it comes to life in general so I wouldn't expect anyone to run into the problems that I seem to come accross. Hopefully the other side won't be so bad. My real problem is our trip to Indiana in two weeks with no A/C. I'll be posting for some help trouble-shooting that. Thanks

Rob

A good alignment shop should be able to ascertain if the body and suspension components are malpositioned. If bent, it would certainly explain your complications, but then you will have a bigger problem. I wouldn't be surprised the northern winter road treatments you have, could have easily made the removal harder. Grit in the pivot bolt holes makes it hard to reassemble. I like Northern Piper am baffled how hard installation went for you. I do know that jacking it up high is almost a must to have enough room to really work on it. I know even on my lower arm replacements, the hole alignment was an issue because the metal sleave in the rubber mounts seemed to be slightly off making it really tough and annoying. I recommend using a drift, punch, chisel or other item to align things up and also hold things in place when in the opposite side from where you put the bolt in. It almost sounds like you are installing the front pivot bolt first, then the bj stud, and then the back pivot bolt in order to need to disconnect the tie rod? The two pivots should be first and then the bj. Northern Piper would have to pipe up on this, but I'm not aware of needing to compress the spring to get the bj stud out and in, but that is necessary for the Taurus. He did this repair and posted it, but I'm not sure how detailed it was. There are also other threads on this that you can search from the windstar front page that might be helpful. Do you have a repair manual for it as it could be helpful?

If you previously had to add R-134 to get you ac to adequately cool, I expect you will have to add it again. Wouldn't it be nice if it just neede a fuse or relay. :D
Good luck!

When I did my LCAs I attached the control arm at the frame and then used a bottle jack beneath the ball joint and simply pressed it into the steering knuckle. Worked very easy. Remember, the ball joint is a joint and if it doesn't look in alignment (with the steering knuckle) just move the joint. It's stiff mind you but will move. I stupidly didn't realize this at first and wondered how the heck it was pointing in a weird direction :loser:

Good luck!

Piper

Yes, that was exactly what the situation was/is. The new sleeve for the rear arm was slightly out of allignment which made it difficult to get it in the "slot". I'm about to do the other side today and I'm hoping it won't be as bad. As far as the A/C, the temp cooled off here and I'll get to that over the weekend. I will check the fuse/relay first. I recharged the system and didn't make a difference. So either the compressor isn't turing on or the door isn't opening for the cool air to get to vents. Thanks:wink:

Rob

is the clutch engaging properly? I've had the clutch fail and the rest of the system was fine. Check to make sure.

piper

Not even going to get involved with it today. I just finished the other balljoint. NOT nearly as difficult as the first side. Actually it was easiest thing I've done to a vehicle since changing the oil. Something was out of "wack" with the first side. Nothing extreme but enough to make a half hour job turn into nearly 2 hours a hang banging. Well, I'm off to get an inspection and hopefully grab a quick 9 holes of golf. Thanks for the advice and look for me under "what the f$%%^^K is wrong with my A/C. :rofl:

Rob

So you recharged it just now not knowing if it had enough charge or not? Ooo, you could overcharge it that way. Hopefully that's not the case, but if it is, just be sure you watch the low pressure return line to the compressor that it doesn't frost up all the way to the compressor. If so, you need to dump some charge!!!! If you have no power to your compressor clutch, obviously your problem is electrical involving fuse, relay, inside control and pressure switches. Good luck!

Thank you, I will watch the lower line for that situation. I have a pressure guage to check that. I believe the correct pressure is noted on the grill. Fortunately (or not) it wasn't either. All I did was throw my temp controls to high -----> then to low and the cool air returned. I'm guessing it was the control arm in there hung up. :popcorn:
I need to start another thread. My speedometer guage all of a sudden, is reading inaccurately. :crying: The only thing I did under the hood was change the air cleaner ??? Thanks in advance guys.

Rob

You may want to take a peek at the vacuum lines to the hvac door motors to be sure they have nothing to do with your lack of cold air. Check for good vacuum while you're at it. If you get just defrost later on, it's definitely a lack of vacuum. The temperature, according to my reference, is actually controlled with an electrically operated motor/actuator connected to a blend door. Unfortunately, they have an infamous history of failing. One suggestion posted here, is to avoid putting the temp setting all the way to hot or cold. I think one guy put RTV on the knob somewhere to limit how far the knob turns.

Maybe you bumped the vehicle speed sensor wiring. It is located just above the left drive axle on the transaxle case. If the VSS was having problems though, other driveability issues would occur. I'd look for brake fluid dripping from the master brake cylinder onto the transmission. On top of it is a flat, black, plastic box that is the transmission range sender. If wet from the fluid, it can give some really weird problems. The best thing I can suggest, is to go to the main Windstar page and use the search function for your problem.

Thanks, I didn't notice anything near the master brake cylinder but there is fluid of unknown origin on passenger side of transfer case. ?? I will get some time this weekend to get a better look and it. Thanks again.

Rob