luvmylegacy98 Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 I hate doing this. The threads on the ball joint stud are shot so I can't even get the castle nut started to beat it out with the control arm. I can see that it's moved from looking at the bottom of the knuckle. But there isn't enough of a lip to pry it from there. Any ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osei Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 Am sure others will chime in, maybe with better methods. A die to rethread would be great. However... If the castlenut will go back up to at least to where you can put a strong nail through, it won't matter if the threads are toast. In my case I used a lot of PB and a chisel at an angle to break the rust free. After it started to move, I alternated directions until it moved about 90 deg. ( i tore the boot off to get to the metal ring. Continued to PB it, still took over an hour before I finally got the sucker out. At the end I used a pair of vise grips above the nut and hammered down on it. O. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamal Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 also there's this: http://turninconcepts.com/product_info.php?products_id=1134 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeyposeur Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 I used one of these to get it loose from the control arm. It's $20 from HF, but I bought a nicer one from a tool store since it was close by. Super awesome tool, and it worked where a gear puller failed. To get it loose from the knuckle I PB blasted the crap out of it for a few hours, loosened the nut, and took a screwdriver to pry the knuckle open. It slid right out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvmylegacy98 Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 Well I got it out with a pair of plyers and some elbow grease but now getting the new one in isn't going so smoothly. My first idea was to wedge a screwdriver into the knuckle only a little so it won't crack and then use the floor jack so push it into the knuckle but it didn't work. And now the ball joint it seated into the control arm and won't go into the knuckle. And ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitetiger Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 worse comes to worse, take the tie rod, strut, and abs sensor off the knuckle and rmove the know knuckle and ball joint from the car. then you can hit the ball joint from the back with a hammer and drift to get it out. if you have a socke for the axle nut, its not too much more to take off the knuckle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeyposeur Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 You can crank the knuckle pretty hard with a strong flat bladed screwdriver without breaking it. I know, lol. Try it, your screwdriver will probably break first. I was scared to do it but it worked. Are you using lots of PB blaster? The ball tugger jamal posted would work well, but you would have to buy one, or make your own. It's too late to do this now, but I really greased up the new ball joint and inside of the knuckle with white lithium grease before installation. I cranked the knuckle with a screwdriver and it went in. I also tried to jack it in, but no luck, the bolt on the ball joint just kept pivoting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvmylegacy98 Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 the ball joint completely went out in my driveway so i cant get it to the garage where i normally work on it. so its on jack stands in my driveway instead of a lift in a heated garage. and i dont have an socket for the axel nut so taking the hub off is out of the question. there also isnt a lot of room to swing my hammer to get the screw driver in there. is there a better angle to get at it? i need my car back ASAP. help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeyposeur Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 You don't need to take the hub off to get at it. Are you wanting to use a screwdriver to break the ball joint loose from the control arm? There is no way that mine would have come off that way. Some people have been successful breaking the ball joint from the control arm by removing the castle nut, lots of PB blaster, waiting, and then hammering down on the control arm after removing the endlinks. I tried that for a little bit, but I used a block of wood to protect the control arm, and it also didn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvmylegacy98 Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 No the screwdriver is for the knuckle. My concern with the control arm is ripping the boot with a fork Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeyposeur Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Hmm, I didn't need to hammer the screwdriver into the knuckle. There was a little gap already that I could fit the flat end into. Why do you care if you rip the boot? Aren't you replacing the ball joint anyway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvmylegacy98 Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 The old ball joint is out. Tore the boot all to hell doing it. I'm trying to get the new one to go into the knuckle now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeyposeur Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Yay! Glad you got it out. Now go get the other three out, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvmylegacy98 Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 I might lose my mind after two haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJay03 Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 The edge of the ball joint right by the knuckle if you hit that with the air hammer a few times it pops right out. If you have an air hammer that is and the pinch bolt is out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I Donated broknindarkagain Posted April 29, 2012 I Donated Share Posted April 29, 2012 Soak it in PB blaster and put a pair of vice grips (tight as hell) on the threaded part. Then hammer down on the vice grips. I've had to do this before and it will eventually come out. -broknindarkagain My Current Project - Click Here COME AND TAKE IT "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silinc3r Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Just updating in case someone else runs into this issue as I did this weekend. Car has 120,XXX and is a southern car. I'll start with the driver side. Outer tie rod end came free from the knuckle with a pickle fork. I am replacing them so didn't care about the boot. Clevis bolt for the lower ball joint came out easy after spraying it with Aero Kroil. I then used a pickle fork to separate the control arm from the ball not thinking and then proceeded to destroy the threads using vice grips to try and hit the ball out. DO NOT DO THAT!!! Ended up having to remove the knuckle and take it to work and using a grinder, carefully cut it to remove the ball/stud, then cut the socket into quarters until it fell apart and could be removed from the knuckle. Also doing the Spec B LCA swap and had no issues removing the rest of the bolts and nuts form the arm. Onto the passenger side. Outer tie rod end, boom out. Removed the clevis bolt for the ball joint with no issues again. I had removed the sway bar end links and used that spot on the arm as a place to hit with my small sledge and boom ball joint out of the knuckle. Doing good. Went to remove the nut that holds the rear of the LCA and then realized the whole stud was moving. The nut somehow has compeletly fused to the stud. Heat didn't work, impact didn't work. Tried cutting it with a dremel but could only do so much. I'll be getting a nut splitter tomorrow and hoping for the best. So my advice/tip. Remove the sway bar end link from at least the spot on the arm so you have a place to hit the LCA. Remove the outer tie rod from the knuckle without damaging the boot. This can be done buy backing off the castle nut and using a small sledge to hit the top of the nut and it should pop it down. Swing the tie rod away. Remove the clevis bolt from the knuckle, make sure everything is sprayed with a penetrate in there and hit the end link mount on the arm and you should have it free. I don't know if I would advise this on the aluminum arms but the steel ones are strong enough. Silinc3r's 05 SWP GT/Spec B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silinc3r Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Just realized this was the 2nd gen section but I think it will still work. Silinc3r's 05 SWP GT/Spec B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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