Seperating lower ball joint?

[8ball]

In the DIY i saw a guy just smashed the ball joint with a sledge hammer, i dont know if thats the correct way of doing things Any help guys?

Oh and btw how do I separate the ball joint from the LCA?

[dj_ender]

In the DIY i saw a guy just smashed the ball joint with a sledge hammer, i dont know if thats the correct way of doing things Any help guys?

Oh and btw how do I separate the ball joint from the LCA?

That's the same way I remove mine, BUT it really only works for the lower ball joint, sometimes the tie-rod end. NEVER USE THIS FOR THE UPPER BALL JOINT, unless your replacing it. If you do it to the upper ball joint you will break the joint.

The ball joint is in the knuckle, not the LCA, and its held in with a c-clip.

['93CB7Ex]

Pry bar wedged in between lca and knuckle. Works perfect.

[8ball]

well i borrowed the tools to it right....

I smashed them out with a sledge any way. But yeah ... Hope I get all my money back.

I also need to get the tie rod ends off thats hard ... lol

[djkurious]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISY8b...e_gdata_player

[Rayz91]

$10 its called a balljoint fork at any local auto parts store and a heavy hammer.

[8ball]

^no that doesnt work. It just rips the boot to shit. And the fork doesnt always separate it. I seen a youtube vid of using a rachet wedge between and lifter the lca with a jack. But that didnt work for me either.

[dhill_cb7]

When i went to take apart my upper control arms to replace them last year i undid the castle nut and rethreaded it back words so i didnt mess up the threads.
I then hit it with a hammer (the upper control arm) to break it loose.
Then i un-screwed the castle nut and went in to the engine bay and removed the two nuts there.
After that was off i took off the knuckle assembly and beat the LBJ out with a hammer.
I did not have a press so we took precaution and slowly (took like over 10mins w/o damaging the lbj) tapped a new one in.

Oh and yes there is a little C-clip and it will fight you if you do not remove it before hand. Wish i would have checked up on it before because it was a PITA.

[Granite CB7]

I always rely on shock, (hitting the knuckle or LCA w/ a hammer) it works the best to break the taper joint. It's sort of like impact VS. constant torque, impact breaks/shocks bolts loose, constant torque on a frozen fastener can lead to snapping it.

[8ball]

there is also a rental tool that I'll be using when I five lug it.

[deevergote]

A fork will tear the boot, almost guaranteed.
A pitman arm puller will usually squish the end of the bolt, since it has the cotter pin holes weakening it.
Whacking it with a hammer can also do similar damage.

Those methods are fine if you are replacing the joint. Otherwise, '93CB7Ex's suggestion is probably best. I actually wedged a bar in there, and very slowly lowered the car. The weight of the car popped the joint out perfectly.

[quaidum]

if looking from the front of the car towards the LCA and the knuckle there is a area where both the LCA and knuckle get very close.

close enough to use a chisel or the fork to separate the two and it doesn't damage the boot in any way

edit: guess i should of read all of the replies first

[xkjnboix]

A pitman arm puller will usually squish the end of the bolt, since it has the cotter pin holes weakening it.

keep the nut on the end of the thread and use the pitman arm puller and it wont mess anything up. you can even put a cotter pin in there if your that paranoid. this is the method i used and i didnt break a sweat. =D

[deevergote]

I thought that would work as well... I learned the hard way that it does not. Doing it that way caused me to damage the threads on the ball joint. When I tried to put the nut back on, the joint just spun.
I have new rear upper control arms waiting to go on now because of that! (I know this is for the lower, but the same concept applies!)

Any method CAN work, but every one of them has risks. The easiest way is to just destroy the joint and replace it every time you want to separate it. You'll be sure to have it fully functional when you reassemble everything! (ball joints are only about $25 for OEM, so that's not really a completely invalid suggestion!)