you would be surprised that works great

This is the way I have always done it. Works fine and has never thrown off the alignment enough for me to notice.

Shawn

Ok thanx guys. the ball joints (if they are what im thinking they are) are still riveted in from when it came from the factory, theyve never been replaced, so it looks like ill be putting in a cv this weekend or maybe doing one of a million other things my car needs done, i havent really decided yet, instead of getting an alignment.

good luck

Uuuug... I had to do some work on the wife'* Grand AM last week and she still had rivets securing the ball joint. They were nicely "centerpunched" on the bottom so I figured it would be easy to drill and punch out the rivets. I was in for a surprise. The rivets coalesced with the control arm and I had to drill, chisel and beat the **** out of them to get them out. You can still dislodge the ball joint from the spindle and complete the job but use caution when separating the ball joint. Try not to damage the grease seal.

Those control arms are a lot stronger then the rivets. When you're barely at an angle at their juncture, you stop when you get to it....

This link may help:

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/techinfo/?article=97

If you follow that method, as others have said, you won't need to re-align the car as a result of the work.

is a sears a good place for alignment?? has anyone used them before?? my parents have but does it differ by car??? they have a GMC van...... thanks! oh.. they want 60bucks.. good for 6months

It really depends on who is doing the alignments at a given Sears garage. I have been happy to use Sears here in Ames for my alignment work because they will re-align your car within six months if you need to replace a tie rod, ball joint, or strut after paying for the initial alignment. This has saved me $ more than once.

when you work at sears you need to be ceritifed to perform alignments