VP Right Hand Ball Joint

[austina40ute]

Who thought changing a ball joint could be so hard?

Has anyone here never been able to separate the Ball joint from the strut?

The story goes I brought a Vp 5 litre wagon to travel to and from work in as I did not wish to kill my good car. The strut tops need replacing so off to work I go. Long story short I have broken my ball joint separator (One big hammer and a trusting mate), had all my weight trying to lever it off with a crow bar with my mate trying to shock it, tried using a bearing puller to have that explode and dint my old Austin. This thing has destroyed half of the cars value in tools. Open to any ideas before I throw it back together and scrap the car as it really is not worth me spending anymore time or money on it.

[votality]

Dont tell me that i might have to replace mine..

Who would think ball joint boots that fit wold be so f*c$&#g hard to find..

[votality]

And what do you mean from the strut? You mean from the lower control arm?

Btw just to make you feel better i busted my dads vice getting the gland nut off the strut body..

Needed to stick the stilton wrench in a 2m metal pole to get it off.. Luckily his vice is a cheapie and he welded it once already.. (didnt break on the weld tho) so i can just weld it up for him.....probably not worth the effort although...considering its probably only worth $30 bucks

[strgas]

only ever used a pry bar and ballpeen hammer to remove the ball joint from the strut has worked fine for me over the last 21 years as a mechanic . could try soaking it in wd 40 crc loctite freeze and release , just avoid use any heat on the cast knuckle of the strut .

[Morton]

Spend the first five minutes beating the strut with a hammer from all sides, on level with where the ball joint would intersect the steering knuckle.

Spend the next five minutes beating the base of the control arm with a hammer in order to "shock" as much side-to-side movement into the ball joint as possible, and it should fall out.

I've never come across one I couldn't remove with that method, even totally collapsed ball joints. Just remember, a bigger hammer isn't more effective if it makes you less accurate. It's all about hitting the sweet spot, and then you can learn to drop them in a few minutes or less.

[strgas]

Spend the first five minutes beating the strut with a hammer from all sides, on level with where the ball joint would intersect the steering knuckle.

Spend the next five minutes beating the base of the control arm with a hammer in order to "shock" as much side-to-side movement into the ball joint as possible, and it should fall out.

I've never come across one I couldn't remove with that method, even totally collapsed ball joints. Just remember, a bigger hammer isn't more effective if it makes you less accurate. It's all about hitting the sweet spot, and then you can learn to drop them in a few minutes or less.

Beating on the control arm is not recommend as the so called sweet spot is the steering knuckle and not the control arm . work side to side on the knuckle apply constant pressure between the knuckle and control arm with a pry bar well placed hits to the knuckle is the aim not beating the hell out of it for five minutes , weather its a HQ or a VZ most ball joints i've split have taken 3 - 7 hits and some wd 40 .

[Morton]

Strgas, that's all well and good if we know what we're doing, but if other people can't dislodge it via the sweet spot, and have already knocked most of the burrs flat, the control arm method is a great way to finish it off quickly

[votality]

My bro in law is a mechanic and recommended doing this:


Undo the nut on the ball joint to just above the end of the thread. (so you dont damage the thread on the ball joint)

Then tap on strut body where the brake come off (on the thin edge) and tap on the strut body where the steering tie rod come off. I.e hit sideways

Now tap the top of the joint with the nut while pushing the control arm down with a lever.

Pop! It should just come off.. A bit of wd40 cant hurt either.

Btw on one of mine turning it 5 degrees before tapping sideways helped.

[Reaper]

Getting taper joints out is all about technique and rarely about brute force. The key is to hit the joint exactly perpendicularly to the axis of the joint. Done hundreds of them and never had a problem. Tried using a balljoint splitter once and found it had the potential for more damage than good.

Reaper