Tired of blowing upper ball-joints in your slammed Odyssey?

[656delta]

As some of you know already, the Odyssey shares its front suspension with the Honda Accord, which makes life easier for those of us who are dimented enough to slam mom's minivan into the weeds, and drive it like a sports car. Unfortunately, the front upper ball-joints that were designed for a sedan weighing quite less, aren't necessarily up for the job. Combine that with your rock-hard, back snapping, teeth rattling JDM-cool-guy coil-over kit that you spent your collage tuition on, and you have a recipe for the soup-sandwich you see pictured here. As you can see the ball-joint has popped completely out of the upper control-arm, leaving whatever was left of the snap-ring on Torrance Blvd. Here's another shot. Uncool to the 3rd degree, especially since I delt with this with the blue van before I sold it to a buddy. Not wanting to replace ball-joints as often as I cut my grass, I decided to find a better solution. Ladies and Gentlemen; The Ingalls ball-joint from TASAuto.com! Note the camber adjustment slot on the top ring. More importantly, the angle of the ball-joint relative to the mounting surface. This puts the ball-joint back at the proper angle when the vehicle is slammed and the upper control-arm is tucked way up into the fender. But best of all it uses a nut and sandwich-plates to secure it to the upper control-arm, rather than a wimpy snap-ring. Bye-bye failed ball-joints and helloooooooooo ladies! I mean REN! Back to business... This is the ball-joint fully assembled. First thing's first; lets pull off the wheel and check the tire wear. Yes, just as I thought. Even with the Progress camber kit I already have, the alignment is still catty-wompas. The Ingalls kit will solve this problem as well. Removing the old ball-joint usually requires the removal of the entire upper control-arm, and then pressing the ball-joint out of it with a hydraulic press. However, if you're a deranged van lowering psycho who drives on roads better equipped for a Humvee, all you have to do is let it fall out by itself, since you've already destroyed the snap-ring on the street. Be sure to clean out the debris from the hole after the ball-joint is removed. These are now "over-the-shoulder-parts." In the trash-can they go! Now install the sandwich-plates and hold them in place while you put the ball-joint together in the control-arm. This is where it becomes a pain in the ass. You're going to need a 1.5 inch open-ended rench to hold the ball-joint while you tighten the security nut on top. The biggest rench I had was 1 3/8ths, so I had to use my 1.5 inch crow-foot attached to a ratchet. Not the ideal choice, but it got the job done with a little elbow-grease and some cuss-words. There's a small divot punched into the upper control arm from the factory. Use it as a reference to make sure you have the ball-joint properly oriented. The top of the adjustment slot should point right at it. Be sure not to tighten the ball-joint all the way down until you attach it to the steering-upright, and set it to the desired camber setting. It has tick-marks engraved in it for reference, but you're still going to have to hit up the local grease-ball alignment shop to set it all up right. In its most mild setting it will give you 1 degree of positive camber, wich will throw off your toe settings, until you have it properly aligned. I'll be taking mine to Topline Performance in Huntington Beach. I haven't been there yet, but I hear great things about them, so I'll be trying them out next week. And here it is, fully assembled... ...and back on the street. Its impossible to tell with the naked eye if the camber is set right, but it's obviously much better than what it was without. In this picture, the combination of my Progress kit and the Ingalls kit (still set at its most mild setting) gives me back 2 1/2 degrees of positive camber, which most likely leaves me at -1 1/2 or -2 degrees. Close, but not close enough. The alignment shop can do the rest. Since installation I've driven it to work a few times, and asside from that stupid rattling noise being gone, the van rides much better, and feels very stable. Remember kids; safety first! Zoe the Low-Ridin' Racer kid says, "Always be sure to secure your car with jack-stands under the proper lift/support points before beginning work."

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[HatchVX]

The main problem with those ball joints is that they never stay where you tighten them.

[656delta]

Originally Posted by HatchVX

The main problem with those ball joints is that they never stay where you tighten them.

I've been driving on them for almost a year and I haven't had any problems yet. I guess you just have to tighten the crap out of them.

[PilotOnDubs]

nice write up and cute kid

[hondakidd03]

Awesome write up its nice to kno I'm not the only person who likes these vans

[newby_j]

more pics of this van!

[S2Carbonworks]

How much is the kit? I need that!

Any full pics of your van?

[656delta]

The kit is made by Ingalls and I got in on www.tasauto.com . I used the kit made for a 95 Accord. I think it was about $100 each side, so it's pricey, but you'll get what you pay for.

[S2Carbonworks]

Isn't that the van from rasrx7?

[656delta]

Yes, we traded. I built the blue van in this thread: http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2404519 and I wanted to buy all of rasrx7's parts for it. It turned out that there was so much stuff that I wanted to buy from him, and he wanted me to do a manual conversion for him, that it was easier for us to just trade vans. I gave him some cash for his parts and here we are. I've changed a few things since I took ownership, like the body-kit, rims, suspension and 5-speed conversion obviously, and he also wanted to keep his interior so we swapped all that out before we sealed the deal. It had a Garson v.i.p. body kit on it when I got it. Looked like this:

[S2Carbonworks]

Yea, i'd love to buy that garson kit. Looks great

[S2Carbonworks]

Is everything in this kit compatible with the Odyssey, and then I can swap out the upper ball joints for the Ingalls ball joints?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ball-...Q5fAccessories

All of my sway bar bushings, control arm bushings and such are all dry-rot cracked and not firm at all.

[rbsjnh]

Originally Posted by S2Carbonworks

Is everything in this kit compatible with the Odyssey, and then I can swap out the upper ball joints for the Ingalls ball joints?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ball-...Q5fAccessories

All of my sway bar bushings, control arm bushings and such are all dry-rot cracked and not firm at all.

yes those are what I used in my ody...

energy suspension bushings are still available for the ra1...and cheap, I grabbed on for like $90.00, complete front end kit...

[S2Carbonworks]

Link to the energy suspension bushings?