Underdog Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 I am trying to remove the front arms and cannot seperate the ball joint from the arm OR the knuckle. I have removed the bolt and the castle nut, hammered on the arm, and done pretty much everything I can think of to remove the ball joint but it's only seperated slightly from the knuckle. I've already scraped doing the rear aluminum stuff this weekend, but I need to get the front arms in... HELP! The Crimson Dynamo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robinlsb Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 You need a ball joint fork. Look it up google. "Belief does not make truth. Evidence makes truth. And belief does not make evidence." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilbrudder Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 i just removed mine yesterday, get a short, fat, flat-head screwdriver and tap it in the slot on the ball joint knuckle(the gap that gets pinched together from the upper bolt) this spreads it so you can tap down on the control arm till it pops out. no special tools required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebpda9 Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 i guess your hammer is not big enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaGe Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 beat it like its your ex wife. OTM. Sorry I didn't mean to start a war which mainly forum people is all about . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitetiger Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 you have 3 choices. a huge hammer, a truck pitman arm puller, or an air hammer. a fork will ruin the joint if you want to reuse it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rao Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 +1 Rob IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR CAR YOU SHOULD NEVER DRIVE IT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underdog Posted April 21, 2008 Author Share Posted April 21, 2008 I had to make the call to abort the arm removal at around 5pm yesterday. We couldn't make it budge past the first 1/16th of removal. We used a regular hammer directly on the arm, as well as a dead blow hammer. I tried removing the lower nut to remove the ball joint from the arm, so I could try and draw it out using a socket and nut, but that side wouldn't come off either. I am putting in the aluminum arms with new whiteline balljoints, and I have the spares off the aluminum arms, so I'm not worried about destroying the old ones. I tried wedging open the split-line on the housing and soaking it with P'Blaster, to no avail. When I finally aborted the mission, I couldn't get the ball joint fully seated back into the knuckle, so I had to use the bolt and kind of "work it in". Reused the old hardware but with new cotter-pins. So now I have the aluminum front arms, tailing arms and upper links sitting in my apartment, while the Konis/Swifts are in and working well. I'm gonna give it a few weeks to tweak the settings and get used to how the car handles, then I'll install the new stuff so I can really tell the difference between the mods. The Crimson Dynamo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rao Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 You need to hit it (the arm not the ball joint) from the side with a big hammer that has some heft to it. Rob IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR CAR YOU SHOULD NEVER DRIVE IT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebpda9 Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 usually 2 hammers at the same time from both sides of the arm will do the trick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praedet Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 i just removed mine yesterday, get a short, fat, flat-head screwdriver and tap it in the slot on the ball joint knuckle(the gap that gets pinched together from the upper bolt) this spreads it so you can tap down on the control arm till it pops out. no special tools required.Watch out doing this as the joint itself is cast iron that does not like to flex a lot. This is an easy way to have it break... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilbrudder Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 it flexes more when it pinches together, so i wasn't so worried about it. just a little bit of spreading did the trick for me, but there was some rust behind it so i'm guessing you got alot of rust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underdog Posted April 21, 2008 Author Share Posted April 21, 2008 That may be the case, however almost every other bolt was free of rust/corrosion/etc. I'm giving myself a month to get used to the new springs/shocks, then I'm going in for round two. It would be nice if I had someone who had done it there to help me... The Crimson Dynamo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praedet Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 it flexes more when it pinches together, so i wasn't so worried about it. just a little bit of spreading did the trick for me, but there was some rust behind it so i'm guessing you got alot of rust.This is from it being forces too far open so that it actually had to be forced closed before the bolt would go through... http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e257/praedet/Suspension/IdiotBrokenKnuckle1.jpg http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e257/praedet/Suspension/IdiotBrokenKnuckle2.jpg http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e257/praedet/Suspension/IdiotBrokenKnuckle3.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underdog Posted April 21, 2008 Author Share Posted April 21, 2008 So I guess I wont be trying that... yeesh. I really tried hammering on the arm cause I knew I was replacing it. I really don't like thinking about any damage the impacts may have imparted on the ball joint, so the sooner I can swap this stuff out, the better. I just can't believe how stuck in there it was. The Crimson Dynamo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rao Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 It's normal, just hit the control arm, that is how it works Rob IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR CAR YOU SHOULD NEVER DRIVE IT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 whitetiger's air hammer ftw Btw, whitetiger - I plan on buying an air hammer - can you link the one you had? anything to look for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitetiger Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 snap-on/bluepoint www.snapon.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitetiger Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=yes&tool=all&item_ID=80253&group_ID=818&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underdog Posted April 21, 2008 Author Share Posted April 21, 2008 whitetiger's air hammer ftw Btw, whitetiger - I plan on buying an air hammer - can you link the one you had? anything to look for? Perfect Now you can help me do the front arms, and the trailing arms! When's good for you? In retrospect, the rear hub unit bearing and rear lower shock bolt seem EASIER than the ball joints. We used the floor jack + breaker bar to get the lower bolts off, but never got to pull the hubs, due to time constraints. The Crimson Dynamo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underdog Posted April 21, 2008 Author Share Posted April 21, 2008 and for those who would say tittywop... here are the [unofficial] results. This is <24 hours after the install, on uneven ground, Konis/Swifts/USDM hardware... http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/1954/img2792wu6.jpg The Crimson Dynamo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitetiger Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 ride height looks dead even. i knew konis were the way to go. **** all that bs with jdm tophats and spring spacers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobo69 Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 i went to sears and got a gear puller:http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00946905000P?keyword=gear+puller and used that to pull the arm off of the ball joint and left the ball joint in the cast iron knuckle. it will pop pretty quickly and very loudly it will scare the $hit out of you but it works! http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/5909/p7130094la3.th.jpg http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/2544/p7130095om4.th.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 i went to sears and got a gear puller and used that to pull the arm off of the ball joint and left the ball joint in the cast iron knuckle. it will pop pretty quickly and very loudly it will scare the $hit out of you but it works! Can you link that at sears.com? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobo69 Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Can you link that at sears.com? edited sorry for the crap pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.