Lower Ball Joint Seperation Anxiety PLEASE HELP!!

[focodave]

All,
I've removed the whole lower control arm, with knuckle attached via the ball joint.
I think I am going to take it to someone who has a big-boy torch and see if heating up the boss on the knuckle will free the ball joint.
If that ruins the knuckle, I'll get another one and be on my merry way.
It has gotten the best of me, today.
And Dennis ---- yes, that was me you heard. I am in Fort Collins, CO.
Dave

[dmwhiteoak]

When you go back with the new ones use a little anti- seize. It will help next time.

[djape1977]

hold one hammer in place touching spot marked red, take another hammer, a big one, at least two pounds, and hit hard. it will pop right out.

Isn't smacking hammers together a bad thing? Something about the heads exploding? I might be mistaken on this, just asking.

done it about a hundred times so far and havent seen any hammer heads explode or even chip.
there's an episode of mythbusters on that subject and they came to same concluslusion - it just doesn't happen

The correct process with two hammers is to hit them at the same time on two opposite sides of the knuckle. This causes the knuckle to compress ever so slightly, popping the shaft out of the knuckle.

Hitting them at the same moment takes a bit of coordination but one gets it after a bit.

Using two 2lb ball peens works best as it concentrates the energy best.

Karl

that would be the way to go, but as you said, coordination is a bit tricky.
still, it works just as well exactly the way i described it

All,
Many thanks for the advice, everyone.
I smacked the knuckle where instructed, while it was under the stress of the new HF seperator, and still no luck.
I smacked it HARD and MANY times!
I've never come acorss anything this stubborn -- and I've worked on my share of old cars, even a 1946 Internationa firetruck (king-pins).
Anyone have a good driver's side knuckle/spindle they want to sell me???
Dave

guess you came across the one in a thousand case where it's really stuck.
some years back i had the same problem and it ended by me cutting the balljoint off with an angle grinder, removing the whole knuckle/spindle assembly and than drilling out the bloody thing. only after drilling 1" hole trough the center did it decide to let go.

[FMO]

hey!

I just replaced mine, it come easy off when I heated it for some seconds with a torch

regards
FMO

[focodave]

All,

Yes, copious heat was required on mine and it did finally come loose.
I took my control arm and knuckle to a suspension shop and they seperated the ball joint for me.
The older guy who worked on it told me that he had done, literally, thousands of ball joint replacements and that mine was one of the most stubborn he has ever seen.
Now that I have the knuckle back, I can get things back together again!

Dave

[dmwhiteoak]

Good for you !

[81SPIDERMATT]

All,

Yes, copious heat was required on mine and it did finally come loose.
I took my control arm and knuckle to a suspension shop and they seperated the ball joint for me.
The older guy who worked on it told me that he had done, literally, thousands of ball joint replacements and that mine was one of the most stubborn he has ever seen.
Now that I have the knuckle back, I can get things back together again!

Dave

and besides heat how did he get it off... i mean method .. tool... ?

[focodave]

Hey 81SPIDERMATT,

He used a tool much like the one I got from Harbor Freight tools.
With lots of tension on the joint, using the tool, he gracefully heated the boss on the knuckle until the thing "popped".
It made a pretty scary noise (very loud and sharp), but all is well.

Dave

[giuliot60]

WOW. I need to do mine as well, and heard scary stories. This post is being bookmarked! And I'm going to spray them with PB Blaster so it has time to sink in.

[focodave]

All,

I got my stubborn driver's side suspension back together after about, oh, 11 hours of work -- not including taking my lower control arm to the guy with a torch to get the ball joint seperated from the knuckle.
Yesterday, I decided to do the passenger's side.
It took my about 2 hours to complete that side.
Both ball joints popped out effortlessly, using the HF screw/lever ball joint seperator tool, PB Blaster, and a good smack with a hammer.
Whew.
So here is my advice to anyone wanting to attempt replacing all of their control arms.
First, this job is not for the faint of heart.
Second, I highly recommend a good coil spring compressor that fits inside the spring.
Third, soak everything and be ready to replace some hardware. I have a Lowe's about 1 mile from my house. I bought quite a few stainless and grade 8 bolts from them.
Forth, be persistent. You can do it if you have the right mindset. Don't expect this to be a 2 hour job.
Fifth -- have plenty of ADVIL nearby and follow it up with LOTS of alcohol after the job is done.

Sober up, then enjoy the ride!!
It is worth all of the effort.

Dave

[giuliot60]

Thanks for the advice Dave (and all). I was going to ask how long the other side took. Glad it wasn't as torturous.

Were you getting a lot of clanging noises when you hit bumps? I'm pretty sure my noises are mainly do to worn suspension rubber/parts, but want to make sure it's not something else.

Do you remember what hardware you replaced? Numbers, type, and sizes?

[focodave]

Giuliot60,

Yes, my car quieted down some, but not totally.
When I bought the car, I knew it had front susepnsion problems.
The upper control arm bushings were worn so badly that the car had severe negative camber. It looked all knock-kneed.
Along with the worn bushings came lots of noise when traversing manholes and railroad tracks.
About 75% of that noise is now gone.
But my car is 32 years old and it has a lot of creeks and noises that I may never get rid of. Part of me wants some of the noises to stay as it gives the car some character and reminds me that this is seat-of-your-pants driving with lots of feedback to the driver (I think that's a good thing!).
The hardware I replaced were about half a dozen lock washers, mostly on the swaybar mounts and on the lower shock bolts.
I also added 4 flat SS washers on the upper control arms that I got from IAP, because of other posts warning me of the problem with the shoulder on the bolts being a little too long.
I had to drill out and replace 2 of the studs on the lower control arm mounts (on the brand new control arms from IAP) because they broke while I was torqueing them. Looks like the black paint may have been too thick on the threads of those studs. I drilled them out and replaced them with #8 bolts (5/16" X 1 1/4").
You may want to chase those threads with a die to prevent the same thing from happening to you.
I had to replace 2 of the bolts holding my steering arm to the steering knuckle (one on each side of the car) because the PO had put the wrong nuts on them and screwed up the threads so bad that I did not trust them.
The heads of both of my lower shock absorber mounting bolts were totally messed up.
I think the PO was too cheap to go out and buy metric wrenches so he rounded bolt heads, etc., with his "American" wrenches.
So that's about it, as if that weren't enough.

Good luck with your's.
It is a true pain-in-the-a@#, but when it's done -- you won't regret having done it.

Dave

[giuliot60]

Thanks Dave. Good stuff to know. Between this site and working on my car, I think in a year I'll feel like an expert on Spiders.

[131]

Isn't smacking hammers together a bad thing? Something about the heads exploding? I might be mistaken on this, just asking.

Mythbusters couldn't get them to explode and called it busted!

[sleggar3]

i just did my ball joints they where stuck in there for good till i heated them up nice and hot then one good hit with the hammer and the poped out i hope this helps for anyone looking to do this