I've been fiddling under the car for a while now, but I can't seem to get the springs to fully extend/release without spring compressors. What's the best way to get them down? So far I've decoupled the steering rack, and I'm wondering if I'm going to have to pop the ball joint or pull the hub off the cv shaft. Trying to unbolt the ball joint from the suspension arm (no idea of the name), is a no-go. Who has some experience in this business?

Control arm is the word you are looking for.

 

It going to take some muscle if you can't get the control arm off as you are going to have to pull the bolt out of the top of the hub and lube it and hope the bottom of the strut will pop out of the hub knuckle unit.

Control arm is the word you are looking for.

 

It going to take some muscle if you can't get the control arm off as you are going to have to pull the bolt out of the top of the hub and lube it and hope the bottom of the strut will pop out of the hub knuckle unit.

 

Thanks! I figured out that separating the strut from the tophat first was a bad idea, but after separating the steering rack, control arm, and cv joint (from the tranny), and using spring compressors upside down on the spring, I managed to get it to slip it out of the fender. On the other side, I kept the assembly intact, but still had to separate steering and the control arm.