Help - Lowerball Joint Removal

[boost]

Hi guys,

 

The lower ball joint on the ke is busted and needs swapping.

I'm having great difficulties removing the ball joint from the control arm. I've removed the circlip and tried removing the steering arm with a puller with no luck. Also does the ball drop down from the arm or does it pull up?

 

Any help is GREATLY appreciate as in stuck half way!

 

Cheers

Steve

[Jono.C]

Get a hammer or sit a piece of pipe bigger than the balljoint itself around it underneath and get a vice and press it out

[boost]

Thanks Jono.

Is the steering arm suppose to come off with the aid of a puller ? Cause it aint coming off! I'm using a pitman arm puller.. I'm assuming this should work.

[Evan G]

no need to use a puller! put the nut back on the balljoint so you don't hit the threads. smash the side of the steering arm with a decent hammer. keep repeating till it pops out

[Jono.C]

Hit the steering arm with a hammer.

 

The way I did it was slide pipe over the end and hit the side of the arm and it pops off.

 

With the balljoint hit it square, if you hit crooked you can damage the arm and balljoints might slop. That's why some people have to weld theirs in

[boost]

I used the hammer method on the tie rod of this build... extremely bad idea as i ended up bending the tie rod.

 

So with the lower ball joint, I managed to press out the old one but was not able to get the new one back on. Tried for over an hour and decided to give up because the inside was getting scored as it went in crooked... i figured I'm best of going to a workshop and getting them to press it in before it ends up being a weld in job as Jono said. :bash:

 

What an ass of a job. I don't know why they didn't use the ball joints with the bolts.

[parrot]

Because pressed balljoints are cheaper.

 

No reason why you should bend a tie rod. Process is to put tension on the joint with a balljoint puller and then strike the side of the steering arm alongside the balljoint pin.

[boost]

the method i used before i had the puller was to undo the nut until it was almost off the threads then bash this bit with the hammer. it worked every time but was a bit of effort, i guess this method is ok if you were doing it once but on the clubman i had to install and then uninstall so many times the tie rod started to bend at the threads.

 

I took the ball joint and LCA to work and used the press there, took 5mins. What a pain. Now to do the other side.

[parrot]

Wouldn't it be great to have a press.

 

But yes, you never hit the actual pin, whether reusing or not.

[boost]

yeh it would be handy to have a press but can't justify buying one only to use it once in a blue moon.. ;)