PO strikes again. Today I'm attempting an at home alignment when I find the passenger side rear UCA bolt has been cut, I guess the PO needed more room to install the headers?!?!?!? So I'm stuck, I really can't get enough shims in there to give me any positive caster.

Please chime in on this approach. I'm thinking I can use a spring compressor to keep the front coil at bay while I remove and replace that rear bolt. I'm trying not to have to remove the whole UCA. Will this be safe enough? Thanks guys....

PO strikes again. Today I'm attempting an at home alignment when I find the passenger side rear UCA bolt has been cut, I guess the PO needed more room to install the headers?!?!?!? So I'm stuck, I really can't get enough shims in there to give me any positive caster.

Please chime in on this approach. I'm thinking I can use a spring compressor to keep the front coil at bay while I remove and replace that rear bolt. I'm trying not to have to remove the whole UCA. Will this be safe enough? Thanks guys....
I'm not sure how you would do this without removing the upper control arm? To remove the arm is not that hard. You do not have to remove the spring. Put a jack under the lower control arm and jack it up untill you have compressed the spring. Then I would seperate the upper ball joint from the spindle. The upper control arm does not carry any of the energy stored in the spring.

If you wanted to try, once the spring is compressed, you could remove the two bolts that hold the upper control arm to the frame and lift the upper control arm out of the way while still attached to the spindle.

Make sure you have the car so it can not roll or move as you will want to make sure the spring stays compressed.:waving:

you can take them out with just the weight of the car on the lower balljoint. take the tire off, and support the car on a block of wood or something under the balljoint. this takes the load off the upper arm so you can pound the stud out and put a new one in there.

The stud popped out fairly easily. I put a 1/4 piece of oak on the header tube, and gingerly started to pry with a large screw driver. It must have been off sometime in the last 40 years. I'm sure getting the new bolt to line up will be a challenge - but I'm part of the way there.....