I am installing ball joint spacers sometime this week.My question is when I jack up the front up and put it on jack stands then do I jack up the lower control arm put a peice of wood or something between the UCA and bumpstop
then lower the jack so the LCA lowers and thethe UCA will stay up when I unbolt the 4 bolts on the BJ?????

 

I would put the wood in between the UCA and bumpstop prior to jacking up the truck. You'll find if you put that jack under the LCA, the suspension won't flex much at all because there is much less leverage than if the suspension is compressed via the tire.

Frank

 

Also, when you remove the 4 nuts, that's a good time to tap out the ball joint hardware. Then you can, after disconnecting the other stuff lower the LCA and the joint will come down.

Frank

 

thanks this helped me too

 

I found I could get a much larger piece of wood under the UCA if I jacked the truck from under the LCA on the side I was working on. Slide the block in, let it down, move jack to a better spot and jack it back up again.

 

i didn't bother with pieces of wood - i tried one and the pressure from the torsion bar looked like it was going to snap it in half. i ended up using the stock bottle jack wedged between the two control arms to press them apart - worked well when i got the angle right. just keep your body out from between the UCA and anything that's a pinch point - at one point I bumped the bottle jack and it came flying out with a massive bang. i didn't have it positioned very well on the LCA.

lucky i wasn't leaning in there with my head when it happened...