Hey gang...
Hope everyone's doing ok and all had a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays..

Situation: I'm about to replace the upper/lower control arm bushing and ball joints on my '98 Ram SS/T..

Question: Since there's a coil spring, can I:

1. put the truck on jack-stands with the weight of the truck on them
2. raise the lower control arm with a floor-jack and with the arm up, compressing the spring, separate the lower ball joint, and then lower the control arm slowly thus allowing the lower control arm to swing down far enough to release it from the coil spring.

OR: Do I HAVE to use a coil spring compresser?

I'm sure the upper control arm's removal is similar to my old b-bodies in that I just need to separate the upper ball joint from the spindle and then remove it from the frame eccentric locations. I'll be marking the position of the eccentric cams so I can repposition them in the same location..

I'm trying to do this all myself other than the press work required for the bushing and ball joint installation itself.

Thanks.

if the ram is similar to the dakotas then a spring compressor is not needed. A floor jack is the way I have done it many of times. Just be careful the spring is under a lot of compression force. Also removing the old ball joints is a pain in the butt, If you can find a shop to do it for a couple hundred then have them do it. You might also want to check your bushings, when my ball joints needed to be replaced so did my bushings.

if you are just removing the arms then it is not too bad, though my regular impact gun would not brake the bolts loose. (IR 231 about 325 ftlbs) The bushing had caused some binding issues and would not allow the nuts to turn. I wound up borrowing a IR Titanium (800 ftlbs) and it removed the bolts.

Well,, turned out to MUCH EASIER than I thought it was going to be.. Luckily I have a lot of experience with our older B's, so this wasn't so daunting. Took me about 1.5 hrs to get one side off. The other side should be far quicker with the driver's side under my belt....

The fruits of my effort.. Tomorrow to the machine shop to press out/in the new bushings and ball joints.. The tierod ends all seemed to be in good shape since those had zerts to grease...

Thanks to ya'll for your replies..

Everything pretty much out that I need.....

one side done and ready for new "stuff"...

I just finished this process a few months ago. I used Energy Suspension Bushings. I did all the work myself. Not sure I would do it all over again though, especially with a truck that did time up North and then down in Florida. I went a head and lowered it 3" in the front and 4" in the rear, while I was at it. I wasn't going to disassemble the suspension a second time if I could help it. The truck handles much better now and looks good with it's new stance.