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Ball Joint Seized


ratt

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I'm no mechanic so you'll have to pardon me if I get a few terms/part names wrong :)

So I decided to change the upper ball joints on my crown as the grease boots were split and pissing out grease. The drivers side popped off easy, the passenger side, not so easy...

The ball joint connects to the (control arm?) by means of a spindle and a crown nut. After much bashing with a ball joint fork and BFH had made no progress, so decided to cut the ball joint from its spindle.

I am now left with a piece of metal stuck inside another piece of metal and no bloody clue how to get it out so i can replace the ball joints.

Any suggestions?

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Why the fuck would you cut it off like that?? :lol: Dear gods.

Anyway, now that you have, you could try heat it to get it out, but, personally I'd put the contraption into a vice and either press it out with the aid of a piece of pipe or smash it out with a punch and a hammer.

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Yea i see the error of my ways now lol... I was going off advice from someone who apparentley knew what they were doing. :| Putting it in a vice would mean removing more parts, which I am trying to avoid as I dont want to open a can of worms

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15Bearing_Puller_250x250.jpg

what about using one of these to press/push the spindle out? should be able to use it in-situ.. known as a bearing/brake drum puller iirc.

as other have already said, heating shit up can help free things - but it might pay to be cautious. blasting your steering/suspension components with heaps and heaps of heat could potentially warp/weaken them.

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before you try any of that, hold a very large heavy piece of metal, like a dumpy hammer, against one side of the ball joint arm thingo.

hit the other side very hard with another large heavy hammer. what happens is it tries to ovalise the hole momentarily and the taper on the ball joint shaft lets go.

this method has worked since they invented tapered ball joint shafts....

hit it maybe 5 times then hit the ball joint shaft to see if its come loose, repeat this process until it comes out, it will come out.

sheepers.

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Don't get a torch just yet.

Your initial attempt didn't work because you only used one BFH. You need two.

You need to strike the cast metal arm simultaneously with two hammers on each side of what is left of your balljoint.

Trust me on this but also take a few gentle practice swings first. I have never tried this method on a cut joint but with luck you will lossen the taper joint enough to knock it up and out.

You can also buy a BJ seperator that uses force via. a bolt to push the taper up and out. They are normally useless but may help in this strange case.

Good luck.

EDIT: What Sheepers said is pretty much the same concept but takes less room and co-ordination

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and and if a wof inspector suspects youve used heat on anything steering or suspension related it a fail instantly .

go with the hammer trick , has never failed for me and the balljoint i pull out are alot bigger then that one normally (then again so are the hammers)

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