PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!! How the hell to get ball joint out???

[Wagon_Wheel]

Hey dudes,
Today i started my attempt to put my new front springs in.
Wasnt a problem, until we had to knock the ball joint bolt out of the bracket its held in by....
I have been told and read that you just undo the nut on the top and belt it with a hammer.... well we been trying this for like 2 hours, my arms are all cut up, we have used many different hammers, and also ruined the ball joint, have messed up the thread on the top and had to cut the boot of it....

The problematic one is on the drivers side, so i looked on the passenger side.... had a different type of nut on the bolt with a split pin through the top... undid that, did the tie rod end like 5-6 times with a hammer, and it popped out like i was told it would....

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE OTHER ONE...
I also noticed the bolt is tapered a bit.
But yeah we have tried everything we can think of.... many hammers, crowbars, claw pulleys blah blah blah, nothing will work...

PLEASE HELP ME, i have to have this done, and i cant even say stuff it and return it back to how it was cause the ball joint is now rooted

Any advice is MUCH appreciated!!!
Cheers,
Geoff

[immortality]

yes they are all taper fit. the idea is that you wind the nut to the top of the thread, that way it protects the thread when you hit it. what i do if it doesn't budge is get a long bit of pipe (approx 1m) wedge it between the lower control arm and the short arm where the steering balljoint fits, i then put a jack under the end of the pipe lifting it as high as possible. this effectively loads up the control arm away from the strut. hit it a few more times and it should hopefully split apart. failing that a balljoint splitting tool.

[Troy5L]

by the way it wasnt moving at all im tippin ur goin 2 av 2 use a balljoint splittin tool like immortality said...might work but dunno where u would get one from

[Wagon_Wheel]

Thanks for that immortality, although i did try what you said, cept i used a crow bar, but that didnt work
Been reading up more about it and found out quite a few ppl have problems like this.
And i have a feeling ive made it a lot worse by hitting it so many times and so hard etc.....
SUCKS

[DANNY8]

I bought a balljoint splitter off of ebay.......it's as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike.....the splitter kit is packed away in the cupboard collecting dust while we've gone back to smashing them with a hammer. Maybe get a bigger hammer?

Altho a good quality splitter might work ok, but mine was made out of cheap stuff and the ends are all mangled up, it hasn't even split apart one ball joint yet, was a total waste of money IMO.

[immortality]

when i pay'd for mine to be done (yes i was young and dumb and knew nothing about cars ) the place that did it (mag and turbo) used a pipe that was about 2meters long. that and a decent size hammer does the trick.

i to have never liked balljoint splitters, most are made from cheap alloy and they do jack ****

[Swordsy]

BALL JOINT PULLER - REMOVER - STEERING - SUSPENSION - eBay Hand Tools, Tools, Car Parts, Accessories, Cars, Bikes, Boats. (end time 05-Mar-08 23:16:12 AEDST)

Get one of these!! they are perfect for getting ball joints out. Just tighten the nut on it untill it gets a bit if pressure up, then just tap the side of the taper with a screwdriver and hammer (notice the tap, not belt) and it just pops out. Sometimes they pop out whilst your still getting it up to a good pressure. No more bashing!! Perfect.

[slo_firo]

i have a really big fork (splitter for mini hubs) it works ok on commys but if your not carefull it splits the rubber boot, that and a heavy hammer normally 2-3 swings and it pops off

actually it works better on my commy that it ever has on the mini lol..... damn 40 yr old cars

[Wagon_Wheel]

Well this definatly sucks lol, i have to get it all fixed today....
Ive gotta keep trying...
And also gotta replace the damn thing before tmoz, hope it all works out lol!!!

[jules]

use a ball joint splitter like others said. they work a treat.

i have one that you wind on, which has worked for me. the fork type ones that you bash with a hammer are harder to use (read: need some heavy hits) but are better than bashing the top of the thread, which is likely to cause further damage to the suspension.

[VN_Luke]

bash it on the SIDE, not the TOP

refer to following thread for more information:
http://forums.justcommodores.com.au/...ngs-shock.html

bash HARD - you wanna be hitting THROUGH the metal, not AT the metal


you can also try PRY the lower control arm and strut apart with say... an old panhard rod - and while you have tension trying to pull them apart, try re-bashing the side again

you can also try 'combos' if none of this works - each combo can be used with the aforementioned method.

i.e.

combo 1: soak the whole friggen thing in wd40 to help unseize anything that might be seized
combo 2: get a butane torch and heat the whole thing up like crazy

just be careful

[Wagon_Wheel]

Thanks guys, especially luke, ur guide was really helpful by the way, thats what i was going off to start with lol.

Buts its ok now... my miracle worker father came home and saved the day...
He was up in phillip island for the bikes all weekend, and just got home, and within 1 minute he had it off lol.

But i tried everything, hitting side top up done left rided blah blah blah, used about 2 litres of WD40, tried crow bars, hammers, levering, jacks etc etc....
So thats 1 problem fixed.... now just gotta replace the ball joint !!! And finish lowering it

[VN_Luke]

balljoint needs to be pressed out/in unfortunately

but you can go to the wreckers with your new found balljoint removal skills, and just pinch a lower control arm with a good cond. ball joint if you want

Good luck with the rest of the lowering

[SweetWagon]

Thanks guys, especially luke, ur guide was really helpful by the way, thats what i was going off to start with lol.

Buts its ok now... my miracle worker father came home and saved the day...
He was up in phillip island for the bikes all weekend, and just got home, and within 1 minute he had it off lol.

But i tried everything, hitting side top up done left rided blah blah blah, used about 2 litres of WD40, tried crow bars, hammers, levering, jacks etc etc....
So thats 1 problem fixed.... now just gotta replace the ball joint !!! And finish lowering it

Glad to hear! I posted a thread on this when doing my front springs too, Done the drivers side first and the ball joint simply fell out with a few hits, so i thought it was going easy untill i started the passenger side, done everything you said.. and ended up taking the whole control arm and strut out together and took it to the mechanic. They replaced the ball joint aswell, said something about having to freeze them out too.

[Wagon_Wheel]

balljoint needs to be pressed out/in unfortunately

but you can go to the wreckers with your new found balljoint removal skills, and just pinch a lower control arm with a good cond. ball joint if you want

Good luck with the rest of the lowering

Yeah thought about that, would a VN V6 one be the same, or are they different cause of v6/v8 and abs/non abs??????
Cause ive got a VN here that im wrecking that still has that crap.

Glad to hear! I posted a thread on this when doing my front springs too, Done the drivers side first and the ball joint simply fell out with a few hits, so i thought it was going easy untill i started the passenger side, done everything you said.. and ended up taking the whole control arm and strut out together and took it to the mechanic. They replaced the ball joint aswell, said something about having to freeze them out too.

Yeah, definatly a pain in the ass i reckon, same thing happened to me, but the drivers side was the problem with mine.
I guess i could also get a new ball joint and take my lower control arm to a mechanic and get him to put new one in, im sure it wouldnt cost too much

[VN_Luke]

yeah should be same same

but if you've got the 50 bux odd to spare, it's always a good idea to go new

even better would be to just do both now, and be done with it and not have to go through this again

hehe

[Wagon_Wheel]

Ok now bought new tie rod end and thats all fitted and all good....
Now just gotta swap springs on the rhs strut and then fit the struts back to the car and put everything back together

$50 spare???? haha only cost me $16.50 lol gotta love that staff discount.
Retail was like $36 or somthin