Ball joint removal

[Kevin B.]

So I'm in the middle of installing 4Crawler ball joint spacers to level out my Runner.

After spending an afternoon trying to pound the studs out of the ball joint, I got nowhere. I've decided to just replace the ball joints, cuz they're cheap and I don't know when that was done last anyway. Now I'm stuck trying to remove the castle nut that holds the ball joint to the knuckle, it's frozen solid and I can't budge it.

I don't want to take this any farther before thinking about it, in case I end up needing to drive it a shop, will I have any luck if I try to take my sawzall to the bolt? It looks like I can cut out the boot and get a blade on the bolt between the knuckle and the ball joint, but how hard is that steel likely to be?

Any ideas or thoughts are welcome, I'm fresh out of both.

 

[gijohn40]

go to harbor freight and get a nut buster... it goes on over your castle nut and then you take a wrench and twist the bolt on the buster that causes a sharp edge into the bolt and it finally breaks... or just use a bfh and a cold chisel....

 

[Kiel]

How are you trying to get it off? Turning it the right way?

 

[Kevin B.]

Awesome. I don't see it on their web site, do they call it something else?

 

[reddman]

That thing is gonna laugh at sawzall blades. Also, cutting it off under the boot wont get you anywhere, you'll still have to remove the nut because it's a tapered seat, not a straight shank. If you absolutely cannot budge the nut after generous soaking with PB blaster and maybe even a little love with the torch if ya have one, might I suggest a skinny wheel on a grinder?

 

[I Lean]

The weight of the vehicle is sitting on that upper joint, so--wedge some stuff in between the bottom of the upper arm and the rubber bumper that stops it going down, then raise the vehicle from the frame. (droop the suspension)

Remove the 4 small bolts on top, that will let the knuckle and balljoint drop away from the upper arm (still attached to the lower). If you want to remove the lower balljoint and the CV shaft, you can take the whole knuckle out and work on the bench. An impact wrench and an extension will make the castle nut come off easily, then a few hits with a BFH will dislodge the tapered stud.

Your new balljoint will likely have bolts instead of the studs the OEM one does, which will make life easy for you to install the spacer when you put it all back together.

 

[Kevin B.]

How are you trying to get it off? Turning it the right way?

lol, yes. I doublechecked the thread to make sure it wasn't reverse.

That thing is gonna laugh at sawzall blades. Also, cutting it off under the boot wont get you anywhere, you'll still have to remove the nut because it's a tapered seat, not a straight shank. If you absolutely cannot budge the nut after generous soaking with PB blaster and maybe even a little love with the torch if ya have one, might I suggest a skinny wheel on a grinder?

Near half a can of PB over the past couple days, and it's a little too close to the brake lines for me to wanna resort to a torch yet. I can move them if I have to, but I like the nutbreaker idea.

This guy looks to be just barely big enough, and the right price. Thanks for the help, guys, I shall report back.

 

[Kevin B.]

The weight of the vehicle is sitting on that upper joint, so--wedge some stuff in between the bottom of the upper arm and the rubber bumper that stops it going down, then raise the vehicle from the frame. (droop the suspension)

Remove the 4 small bolts on top, that will let the knuckle and balljoint drop away from the upper arm (still attached to the lower). If you want to remove the lower balljoint and the CV shaft, you can take the whole knuckle out and work on the bench. An impact wrench and an extension will make the castle nut come off easily, then a few hits with a BFH will dislodge the tapered stud.

Your new balljoint will likely have bolts instead of the studs the OEM one does, which will make life easy for you to install the spacer when you put it all back together.

Yah, I shimmed the upper control arm and stuck my floor jack under the lower, and the four nuts on top came off easy. I've got longer bolts to use with the spacer and new ball joints, which is good, cuz I mushroomed two of the studs.

There's not room to get my impact wrench over the nut while it's on the truck, I already tried. If the nutbreaker doesn't work, I'll look at pulling the CV shaft.

 

[Kevin B.]

Sweet merciful crap, that thing is in there.

The nut buster worked great, thanks for that tip. The bolt is still stuck in the knuckle, tho, and it won't budge. I eventually tore the ball joint apart reefing on it with the pickle fork, so with nothing to lose I went ahead and cut it off, leaving the ball joint bolt in the hole. My next thought was to drill out the inside from the top and use my cold chisel to collapse it, but I can't drill deep enough, burned up three 15 dollar bits trying. Last night I was poking around my garage for inspiration, and found a coil spring compressor. I was able to weld up a jig using the compressor and a massive nut for a spacer, got it in place, and proceeded to bend the bolt on the spring compressor trying to press it out.

It ain't coming out. Unless somebody has any other ideas, I see two options. Remove the entire knuckle and take it to a machine shop, or just replace it. I can't afford to do either right now, assuming I can even get the knuckle off (which I'm not at all sure about, considering the condition the rest of those bolts must be in).

This truck is wearing me out.

 

[Chevycrew]

Take the knuckle off, flip it over, then pound it out with a BFH.

Or, they make a small puller designed for this. Its just a smaller version of the pitman arm puller... (Tie rod end puller) also hitting the end of the knuckle where the ball joint goes through will help loosen it up.

I havent used a pickle fork in over 10 years! They SUCK!

 

[Chevycrew]

they make 2 different sizes of these...

http://www.harborfreight.com/tie-rod-and-pitman-arm-puller-1752.html

 

[I Lean]

Take the knuckle off, and hid the end where the balljoint stud goes through. Basically hitting perpendicular to the tapered bore, as if you're trying to oval it. The shock should knock the stud out fairly easily. (I just did my balljoints a couple weeks ago, and it only took 2 or 3 mighty hits to dislodge it....this is while holding the knuckle in my hand, so they weren't really THAT hard)

 

[skippy]

are you trying to press it out the right way its a tapered hole so if your trying to press it into the taper it obviously aint gonna do much i have seen theses balljoints be that big of a pain