Options for dropping front ball joints

[Spaz]

the pickle fork should work just fine, make sure you have the right size and have at her.

[Rosica]

Disconnect Tie Rod & Sway bar
Jack up strut at tie rod mount - just a little, enough to take some pressure off the c-arm
Get two M25 nuts and jam them together on the c-arm stud - leave one unthreaded a few turns
hit the strut around the c-arm mount a few times with a hammer
Hit the nut on the c-arm - One good whack will do it

Works every time

[Stu]

The hammer worked great! New urethane dust boots are on the control arms/ball joints, and threw in a set of RD Blues and our favorite Bilsteins while it was all apart.

[elemental]

The Inner ball joint on my car just slid out after I removed the Nut, I was told that a Air Chisel with a Pickel fork attachment is the best way to remove the inner ball joints if there stuck on. BE carful with that Air Chisel as the front subframe is hallow and it dosnt like sharp impacts , you will punch through

[benDASHDASH]

Resurrecting an old topic but...

I cannot for the life of me hammer out the control arm joint (next to wheel). I've hammered, slegehammered, jacked the strut up to level it and hammered, and a few other things... and hammered. No luck. Neither side is coming out which is making me think either the car is just tougher to crack than most. The tie rods joints were easy though. I don't know what the deal is but if anyone has some more tips to share it would be much appreciated.

[KenC]

Soak the shit out of it with PB Blaster and then hammer harder.

[Charlie]

Resurrecting an old topic but...

I cannot for the life of me hammer out the control arm joint (next to wheel). I've hammered, slegehammered, jacked the strut up to level it and hammered, and a few other things... and hammered. No luck. Neither side is coming out which is making me think either the car is just tougher to crack than most. The tie rods joints were easy though. I don't know what the deal is but if anyone has some more tips to share it would be much appreciated.

Flame wrench time.

-Charlie

[mikeedler]

I use a really long brass drift, or pipe, put it on the top of the joint,from the top and hit it with my 7lb sledge, knocks it loose every time.

[65Matt]

Get a bigger sledge - it makes a big difference.

[benDASHDASH]

I do have a big sledge :twisted:

The problem is that I don't have room to get a straight swing in there. I tried putting things on top of the nut/bold but the angle is still quite limiting.

[KenC]

If you put something on top of the bolt other than a nut or two that you're going to whack at, it will disperse the force over too long of a period of time and greatly reduce the impact that you're giving the joint. Get a couple of spare nuts, size M14x1.5, thread on on the top of the joint and give it a good whack. I'd soak it in pb blaster before though to get rid of some of the grime. Also, make sure you hit it hard only a couple of times, as the slugo will most likely whack the shit out of the nuts.

Also, whack the hell out of the strut housing around where the ball joint bolt acutally goes through. Sometimes banging the sides around there can loosen it up.