Well I had a little mishap just a minute ago. I was trying to remove the old ball joints and I don't have the proper tool; I was looking around the garage trying to come up with a way to do it without getting another tool. I figured I might be able to do it with my 2 jaw puller, so I put a big socket over the top of the joint so it wouldnt pivot and setup the puller. After I looked at this I thought it might bend up the sides of the contol arm. I've never done this before so I don't know how much force it takes to remove the joint. I was in a lazy and impatient mood so I just said F*ck it and went at it. LOL, sure enough, I bent up one edge of the arm a little bit. Damn, those things are in tight, it didn't even budge!



So, do I need to buy a new arm now? Looking at it, the only ill effects I can think it would cause is a little decrease in strength on that side...under load I guess this could cause the ball joint to bend the arm even farther throwing the steering/alignment out of wack.....what do you guys think? Could I get away with bending the edge back to the original shape?



If I buy a new arm, should I buy both or just replace the damaged one? VB wants $200 for one and Mazdatrix is $140, are there any cheaper places?

 

look on ebay, i got an idler arm on there for like $30