It's easy to change the upper ball joint. The upper bushings isn't too bad. The lower ball joint requires a press. The lower bushings require a spring compressor.
I wouldn't do anything beyond the upper ball joint without air tools.
The tools I use for the job are an air impact hammer, 1/2 inch impact wrench, big hammer, two floor jacks, two jack stands, a ball joint press (I have the otc 7249), a spring compressor, and a bunch of hand tools.
1. jack up van and put it on jackstands. I want both front tires off the driveway.
2. remove tire and caliper. Hang the caliper off of something with some plastic ties.
3. remove rotor
4. This step is probably different for some years. On a 97 there's a sensor mounted on a plastic disc behind the rotor. It's mounted to a backing plate made of sheet metal. The sensor if riveted to the upper control arm and I believe the backing plate too (GM nipple heads). One nut joins the plastic piece to the sheet metal piece. Leave it. The others go through both pieces and attach them to the spindle. Remove those and stick the whole thing over the upper control arm. You will also have to follow the sensors wire back behind the upper control arm where it plugs into another wire. It's pretty easy to disconnect by feel which you will have to do before you remove the upper control arm.
5. use impact hammer to knock four bolts off of upper ball joint.
6. remove castle nuts from upper and lower ball joints
7. remove tierod from steering knuckle.
8. You might a well detach the sway bar link now too if you are going after the lower bushing. You might as well change the sway bar link too but you don't have too.
9. Knock the ball joints out of the spindle (the big hammer works good here but I'll leave the tool choice up to you) and remove the spindle.
10. The upper control arm is held on with two bolts. If you pry the upper arm up you can see the two bolts. They have nuts on the other side which you cannot see but you can get a wrench to them. Using the tool of your choice (1/2 impact wrench works) loosen them. There are these things called shims between the control arm shaft the the mount point on the van. Reach in and pull them out. You want to put them back the same way so try to figure out how many are on each bolt and put them someplace where you will be able to remember how they came out. Once you have the shim packs out finish removing the nuts from the two bolts and remove the upper control arm.
11. At this point I would get my otc press out and remove the lower ball joint and install a new one. You may want to just remove the lower arm and bring both arms to a shop for these steps but that's up to you.
12. place a floor jack under the lower ball joint. Make sure it's holding it.
13. Remove the shock.
14. Take your spring compressor. I use this: http://greatnecksaw.com/product_info.php?pName=coil-spring-compressor&cName=undercar-shocks&osCsid=498d5f83628b4c43b5e8ba5d25ee2dc8
It's a OEM 27035 if the link doesn't work. Don't try and use the cheap ones they sell at advanced auto or the external ones they use for struts cause this ain't no geo spring. Using the tool of your choice (1/2 inch impact) compress the spring until it is loose between the control arm and the shock tower. At that point lower the jack stand and remove it. Now you need to keep in mind that there's a whole lot of energy inside that compressed spring so don't put your face or any other part of your body over the ends of it, don't let the kids play with it, etc. etc....
15. Remove the two lower control arm bushing bolts.
16. Remove the control arm.
Now we have both control arms off with the upper ball joint off and either a new or the old ball joint on the lower control arm. You can find a shop to press the bushings and lower ball joint off and then press new ones in. I would take my impact hammer and start pounding the old bushings out. The lower ones you hammer around the outside edges and they will pop out after a while. The upper ones you take the nuts off the ends (if you can, you have to get at least one off) and then you can hit them from both sides. I've always changed the upper shafts too so I don't worry about re-using those. If you are a really really cheap bastard I guess you will have to figure that out yourself. With the lower control arm bushings you get them in most of the way and then find a hard surface and hammer on the inside of the control arm to try and get the bushings in flush. You may have to turn them over and hammer from the outside right on the bushing itself to get the last 1/8 inch. I suspect a real pro would shake his head at that but I'm not buying a real press to do that. Because I wouldn't be doing this in the first place if I wasn't a cheap bastard after all. On the upper install the bushings into the control arm over the shaft. Then tighten the two nuts asshole tight using a 1/2 inch impact wrench if you got one. You have to stick a screw driver through the mounting holes to keep the shaft from turning when you tighten the bolts. Then you can hammer on the inside of the control arm to set the bushings into place. You probably want to watch someone that knows what he's doing before you try this yourself and you want a really big hammer. I'm not talking about something you would use to drive nails here.
From here it's mostly backwards. The new ball joints have rubber boots. If you look at them they will have a little channel that should be aimed towards the center of the car. That's so overflow grease won't get on your rotor. When you go to put the spring back in you may have to use some kind of adhesive to hold the isolators in place. They are the littles rubber thingys on the ends of the spring. To reinstall them put the bushing bolts back in the lower control arm and start the nuts on them. No need to tighten them until the spring is secure. Put the ball joint end of the control arm on your floor jack. If you used the kind of compressor I use then you have the foot sticking out that should help you put it back where it goes (it's important to do that). Otherwise you should be able to see where the spring sat on the control are and turn it to match. The top of the spring fits over a flange and you will have to lift it straight up over that flange without knocking the isolator off. Then you just kind of tilt it into the control arm (don't knock the lower isolator off either) and have someone jack up the floor jack until the spring is nice and secure. Remove the compressor and re-install the shock and life is good.
After you are all done you will probably want to get an alignment to fix your camber. That's controlled by those shim packs we talked about back in step 10 and it's probably going to be off now. Make sure you go to a shop you trust since most of the tire store techs are not use to having to adjust that anymore and might blow it off.
A few final thoughts.
This is a tough job and I would not consider changing bushings without air tools
Buy a can of penetrating oil like Blaster PB and use is liberally on bolts and bushings.
Springs are dangerous and these vans have big *** springs. Don't even think about using a cheap or external spring compressor.
You have to have a press and a cheater bar to do the lower ball joint yourself.
I'm a computer programmer so if you are following my directions you may get hurt and while I wouldn't like for that to happen you can't say I didn't warn you and now you know I'm not a trained tech either. In fact I may never have even stayed in a Holiday Inn Express.
Unless you think this stuff is great fun make sure you keep the ball joints well greased so you won't have to do it again.
I wouldn't do anything beyond the upper ball joint without air tools.
The tools I use for the job are an air impact hammer, 1/2 inch impact wrench, big hammer, two floor jacks, two jack stands, a ball joint press (I have the otc 7249), a spring compressor, and a bunch of hand tools.
1. jack up van and put it on jackstands. I want both front tires off the driveway.
2. remove tire and caliper. Hang the caliper off of something with some plastic ties.
3. remove rotor
4. This step is probably different for some years. On a 97 there's a sensor mounted on a plastic disc behind the rotor. It's mounted to a backing plate made of sheet metal. The sensor if riveted to the upper control arm and I believe the backing plate too (GM nipple heads). One nut joins the plastic piece to the sheet metal piece. Leave it. The others go through both pieces and attach them to the spindle. Remove those and stick the whole thing over the upper control arm. You will also have to follow the sensors wire back behind the upper control arm where it plugs into another wire. It's pretty easy to disconnect by feel which you will have to do before you remove the upper control arm.
5. use impact hammer to knock four bolts off of upper ball joint.
6. remove castle nuts from upper and lower ball joints
7. remove tierod from steering knuckle.
8. You might a well detach the sway bar link now too if you are going after the lower bushing. You might as well change the sway bar link too but you don't have too.
9. Knock the ball joints out of the spindle (the big hammer works good here but I'll leave the tool choice up to you) and remove the spindle.
10. The upper control arm is held on with two bolts. If you pry the upper arm up you can see the two bolts. They have nuts on the other side which you cannot see but you can get a wrench to them. Using the tool of your choice (1/2 impact wrench works) loosen them. There are these things called shims between the control arm shaft the the mount point on the van. Reach in and pull them out. You want to put them back the same way so try to figure out how many are on each bolt and put them someplace where you will be able to remember how they came out. Once you have the shim packs out finish removing the nuts from the two bolts and remove the upper control arm.
11. At this point I would get my otc press out and remove the lower ball joint and install a new one. You may want to just remove the lower arm and bring both arms to a shop for these steps but that's up to you.
12. place a floor jack under the lower ball joint. Make sure it's holding it.
13. Remove the shock.
14. Take your spring compressor. I use this: http://greatnecksaw.com/product_info.php?pName=coil-spring-compressor&cName=undercar-shocks&osCsid=498d5f83628b4c43b5e8ba5d25ee2dc8
It's a OEM 27035 if the link doesn't work. Don't try and use the cheap ones they sell at advanced auto or the external ones they use for struts cause this ain't no geo spring. Using the tool of your choice (1/2 inch impact) compress the spring until it is loose between the control arm and the shock tower. At that point lower the jack stand and remove it. Now you need to keep in mind that there's a whole lot of energy inside that compressed spring so don't put your face or any other part of your body over the ends of it, don't let the kids play with it, etc. etc....
15. Remove the two lower control arm bushing bolts.
16. Remove the control arm.
Now we have both control arms off with the upper ball joint off and either a new or the old ball joint on the lower control arm. You can find a shop to press the bushings and lower ball joint off and then press new ones in. I would take my impact hammer and start pounding the old bushings out. The lower ones you hammer around the outside edges and they will pop out after a while. The upper ones you take the nuts off the ends (if you can, you have to get at least one off) and then you can hit them from both sides. I've always changed the upper shafts too so I don't worry about re-using those. If you are a really really cheap bastard I guess you will have to figure that out yourself. With the lower control arm bushings you get them in most of the way and then find a hard surface and hammer on the inside of the control arm to try and get the bushings in flush. You may have to turn them over and hammer from the outside right on the bushing itself to get the last 1/8 inch. I suspect a real pro would shake his head at that but I'm not buying a real press to do that. Because I wouldn't be doing this in the first place if I wasn't a cheap bastard after all. On the upper install the bushings into the control arm over the shaft. Then tighten the two nuts asshole tight using a 1/2 inch impact wrench if you got one. You have to stick a screw driver through the mounting holes to keep the shaft from turning when you tighten the bolts. Then you can hammer on the inside of the control arm to set the bushings into place. You probably want to watch someone that knows what he's doing before you try this yourself and you want a really big hammer. I'm not talking about something you would use to drive nails here.
From here it's mostly backwards. The new ball joints have rubber boots. If you look at them they will have a little channel that should be aimed towards the center of the car. That's so overflow grease won't get on your rotor. When you go to put the spring back in you may have to use some kind of adhesive to hold the isolators in place. They are the littles rubber thingys on the ends of the spring. To reinstall them put the bushing bolts back in the lower control arm and start the nuts on them. No need to tighten them until the spring is secure. Put the ball joint end of the control arm on your floor jack. If you used the kind of compressor I use then you have the foot sticking out that should help you put it back where it goes (it's important to do that). Otherwise you should be able to see where the spring sat on the control are and turn it to match. The top of the spring fits over a flange and you will have to lift it straight up over that flange without knocking the isolator off. Then you just kind of tilt it into the control arm (don't knock the lower isolator off either) and have someone jack up the floor jack until the spring is nice and secure. Remove the compressor and re-install the shock and life is good.
After you are all done you will probably want to get an alignment to fix your camber. That's controlled by those shim packs we talked about back in step 10 and it's probably going to be off now. Make sure you go to a shop you trust since most of the tire store techs are not use to having to adjust that anymore and might blow it off.
A few final thoughts.
This is a tough job and I would not consider changing bushings without air tools
Buy a can of penetrating oil like Blaster PB and use is liberally on bolts and bushings.
Springs are dangerous and these vans have big *** springs. Don't even think about using a cheap or external spring compressor.
You have to have a press and a cheater bar to do the lower ball joint yourself.
I'm a computer programmer so if you are following my directions you may get hurt and while I wouldn't like for that to happen you can't say I didn't warn you and now you know I'm not a trained tech either. In fact I may never have even stayed in a Holiday Inn Express.
Unless you think this stuff is great fun make sure you keep the ball joints well greased so you won't have to do it again.
