This job turned out to be more work than I thought. Getting the joint out was easy enough with a hammer and a big socket.
For installation I got a hold of a ball joint press from O’Reilly’s tool loan program. Unfortunately it’s not really meant for tiny little control arms like the Fiero has.
I found some info on using the generic press on a Fiero, but no close-up pictures or good explanations (this post has close-up pictures, and I hope a good explanation). Here is what I ended up doing. You need:
-Ball joint press. I had the generic “evertough” brand one from the O’Reilly tool loan program. No special adapters–just three spacers and an “anvil” for each end of the tool.
-Piece of 1/4″ steel plate, about 2×3″. The critical dimension is it can’t really be wider than 2″.
-A BIG flat washer. The one I used was 2″ OD and 13/16″ ID. Anything bigger than the base of the ball joint with an appropriate hole for the zerk fitting boss in the middle will work. You could also drill the appropriate size hole in your steel plate and forgo the washer.
Use the appropriate size spacer from the press kit (the generic steel rings) and anvil on the open side of the press. In my kit, the right adapter was the smallest ring. This side will go over the threaded end of the ball joint.
The remaining anvil is meant to go on the threaded side of the press but it’s too big and will hit the control arm before it presses the joint in. Instead, use some tape and stick the big washer to the middle of your piece of steel. Put the middle of the washer over the threaded boss for the zerk fitting in the middle of the ball joint. This is your new anvil–the washer makes sure you press on the edges of the ball joint (the boss in the middle is raised just above the edges and you don’t want to squish it). Tighten the press onto your new anvil. This is a lot of fun trying to hold everything together and lined up.
Here’s the “anvil” I used for the base of the ball joint. The washer is just stuck on with painter’s tape:
This is the setup for pressing it in:
Here is the DIY anvil from the backside:
Here you can see the washer in between the steel plate and the ball joint. You want the hole lined up with the zerk fitting boss.
I couldn’t get the joint to go in completely straight, but this setup left me enough wiggle room I could move the threaded part around on the steel plate closer to a high side and straighten it out.