Well,

About a mile from my house thankfully, while driving I hear a loud "bang" and then grinding from the rear, sure enough (to me) looks like the rear balljoint popped out. Control arm is hanging down into the wheel. Pics below. Need to know how I go about fixing this and how hard. Mind you I have to move out of here in 3 weeks and have very limited time.

You will need to raise the lower control arm with a floor jack, Might want to have another under the rear portion of the car as well.... Once you raise the lower control arm, you will need to remove the wheel, depending on what you have in the way it may or may not be easy to remove the upper part of the ball joint...

As for the lower control arm, the remainder of the ball joint will have to be pressed out( either a ball joint removal kit or a press ) and the new one pressed in... From there you would be able to reassemble...

When I go through the 95, it will get new ball joints all the way around...

Looks familiar... I had to fix mine in a Cub Foods parking lot.

I replaced the entire control with one I had on the shelf. Way easier than worrying out pressing the ball joint in and out, especially in a foreign area.

http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... 27&start=0

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Andrew - owner/operator of Bonnevilles Unlimited

2004 Bonneville GXP | 60k | White Gold Tricoat | custom built supercharged 3800 hot rod | garage queen
1997 Corvette | 55k | Silver Metallic | Z06 wheels | Date-night Hauler/Parts runner
2014 Town & Country Limited | Cashmere Pearl | 95k | Family Hauler
2002 Ram 1500 Quad Cab Sport | Black| 260k | Official Bonneville Hauler

Luckily the car was close to home and the tow truck driver was very careful and good about towing it...backed it right into my garage so I have a very decent place to work on it.

Also same on my old 93 last year. I think there is a c-clip that holds the ball joint in as well that must be removed before pressing it out.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=17897&hilit=ball

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Ryan

2003 Bonneville SSEi - The Black Mirror SOLD!
2002 Bonneville SE - The Mutt Complete 2004 SLE interior, drivetrain, and body harness swap, ECC swap, HUD swap, black GXP wheels, GXP headlights and tinted tails - SOLD
2003 BMW 540i M Sport, 2001 BMW X5 4.4i, 2010 GMC Acadia, 2017 Grand Design Imagine 3150BH
1982 Cutlass Supreme - The fun one

Just a thought, do the ball joints have a grease point?.

Getting busy with a grease gun is an often neglected part of routine maintenance, most in and out lube shops won't do it as it takes too much time.

Way back in the '70s the British Morris Marina had a terrible reputation for the front suspension collapsing. I repaired a lot of them, as did many other repair shops in the day. Nearly always they had failed because the trunnions hadn't been greased, including some that had a full dealer service history.

Don't let that happen to you!.

Roger.

Thanks Roger, and I think they do have a grease fitting.

Front and rears have grease fittings.

Unfortunately, neither of these failures appear to be from lack of grease. This one the whole joint came out of the control arm, not just the ball coming out of the socket, where your lube goes.

It is important to remember to grease any and all fittings however. Unfortunately, very few cars anymore come with grease-able parts anymore. Our 02 Suburban had 11 fittings, our '11 Suburban has 2....

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Bye Bye:

RIP sandrock

Its just simple wear... 16 years and close to 200K will do that...lol