Removing ball joints kind of pain- comments welcome

[gtgt_bangbang]

The Beck Arnley ball joints showed up today marked 555 and MIJ for 25 to 35 a pop. Those are going in.

Removed the lower ball joints, arms on the truck of course,
and what a pain that was.

It ignored all my forks and even broke one. I don't really have the right sledgehammer to teach it a lesson and the pneumatic hammer, okay it's a cheapie, but was useless like mosquitos sucking blood from a statue.

After beating the dogsnout out of it for a while with no effect except destroy the rubber, I threw some map heat on it while digging up this little pitman alarm puller the bottom left hand backside of my toolbox.

This tool I'm proud to say managed to fit on & remove both lowers with just a teensy bit of grinding on the side of the arm, almost merely casting flash, (due to the fact this is such a small span puller) ,

But this puller will not fit on the uppers joints, as the knuckles are much wider than the lower arms. If I cleaned up the knuckle enough to fit the puller, I would be cutting into bone

Was thinking the Harbor freight for one of the $20 scissor types but if the uppers are anywhere near as tight as the lowers, I expect to turn it into shrapnel right away.

It's possible the bottoms were just hammered in harder, or possible wishful thinking.

What did anyone here used to remove their upper ball joints?

 

[KidVermicious]

Remove the castle nut and give the upper arm of the spindle some love with the Four Pound Negotiator until it falls off the ball joint stud. PB Blaster the day before will help.

 

[Hyde802]

Heat and a big hammer.

Weve had to torch them off clean, then pull the stud out of the spindle too.

Rust sucks. :jump:

 

[77'911]

I just used a separator with a sledge, popped right apart. While in there, I replaced the a-arm bushing with urethane and the torsion bar with a Sway-a-Way unit(25mm). Good luck with it.
regards

 

[gtgt_bangbang]

this is IFS,

Rust!?!?! Well, I never! Actually not corroded that much, just pounded in there for 20 years.

What is it with you guys and hammers? I feel like I'm hanging around the dinner table with the Thor family ;

Stanley: "Hell I'd tap that like a 6 pound hammer ! "
Thoradore Jr. ;"well, that's why you're a deadblow, lil bro , because I'm swinging eight!"
Stanley: "MOM mallethead called me a name"
M: "oh you boys! pipe down before I sledge you to bed without dessert, and we are having your favorite, Smashing Pumpkin Pie! Now Stanley dear, get your handle off the table "
Thoradore Jr. (to Stanley): you tinker ...
Stanley (to Thoradore Jr.) : you whack off ...

With that IFS front end, there really isn't any effective way to swing a hammer into the top ball joint stud,

Of course, the steering knuckle is off the truck, but the upper ball joint threads are aimed downward into the C-shaped knuckle, in other words, the bottom of the knuckle prevents me from swinging a good hammer into it; there is no decent swinging arc to hit it. If I ever did get a good whack at it, it would probably knock off my feet through the garage door and across the street.

I like that Pitman arm puller, which sure did the job on the lower , but I need a wider one.

 

[9494runner]

I used a tie rod puller and a crescent wrench. couple of twists it popped it loose, just a couple of spritz with the pb blaster. It really came down to going around to rent a tools to find fixed jaw puller(pitman or tie rod and also some "steering box puller" at Oreillys) that was the right size. all 4 were really easy to pop out and the new ones pressed in pretty easy ( cali truck, no rust thank god). Broke a lowe's special ratchet trying to bust loose one of the 4 BJ bolts:rip:

 

[nevada]

Rust!?!?! Well, I never! Actually not corroded that much, just pounded in there for 20 years.

What is it with you guys and hammers? I feel like I'm sitting around the dinner table with the Thor family "Hell I would hit it with a 4 pound hammer" "well, that's why you're a failure bro , because I hit with eight pounder!"

With that IFS front end, there really isn't any effective way to swing a hammer into the top ball joint stud,

Of course, the steering knuckle is off the truck, but the upper ball joint is in the steering knuckle, threads aimed downward into the C-shaped knuckle, in other words, the bottom of the knuckle prevents me from swinging a good hammer into it; there is no swinging arc to hit it, plus there is really no way to hold the whole assembly, if I manage to hit, it would go shooting across the Street.

I like that Pitman arm puller, which sure did the job on the lower , but I need a wider one.

you aren't trying to hit the stud, you want to hit the side of the knuckle. directly next to where the BJ stud goes in.

3-4 hits is all it should take.

 

[gtgt_bangbang]

That's interesting, I guess I see what you mean, but I don't have the ballpeens to hammer on a permanent part like the yoke of that steering knuckle, even if it's later hiding behind the tire so no one can see my handiwork.

 

[nevada]

That's interesting, I guess I see what you mean, but I don't have the ballpeens to hammer on a permanent part like the yoke of that steering knuckle, even if it's later hiding behind the tire so no one can see my handiwork.

ive heard of people using 2 hammers. but that would take a coordination I don't think I have...

 

[gtgt_bangbang]

ive heard of people using 2 hammers. but that would take a coordination I don't think I have...

hahahaha , that sounds like a very small Polish Firing Squad

 

[gtgt_bangbang]

There's good news and there's bad news.

The good news is I own the perfect threaded press tool to extract this ball joint.

The bad news is I haven't seen it for a couple years.

The current score; Square one. Me zero

it looked like this only mine was bigger better lookin and did it longer

 

[Hyde802]

What is it with you guys and hammers? I feel like I'm hanging around the dinner table with the Thor family ;

Stanley: "Hell I'd tap that like a 6 pound hammer ! "
Thoradore Jr. ;"well, that's why you're a deadblow, lil bro , because I'm swinging eight!"
Stanley: "MOM mallethead called me a name"
M: "oh you boys! pipe down before I sledge you to bed without dessert, and we are having your favorite, Smashing Pumpkin Pie! Now Stanley dear, get your handle off the table "
Thoradore Jr. (to Stanley): you tinker ...
Stanley (to Thoradore Jr.) : you whack off ...

Dont forget about the heat! Heat is important too. :flame:

 

[gtgt_bangbang]

no it wasnt ...
heres the last Version.

I first tried the the pickle forks on a lower ball joint, both steam and protein powered, but that only managed to shred the boot and break a tool. The lowers were probably the Original.

Putting the torch to it made a stanky nice grease fire. Inside. I did a little fooling around by heating the knuckle a few minutes, then lifting some water up to the threads, trying to shrink the stud away from expanded knuckle. Maybe helped I don't know.

I toss the forks back in the pickle barrel and got out a small Pitman puller.

It took very little filing on the side of control arm to slide it over, now it would work forever.
Just when it seemed I was going to frag the puller, the ball joint jumped out of there so hot it nearly hit the fender. The second one was nowhere near as diffie nor jumped so high.

The only problem with the uppers is the knuckle is much wider then my tool.
That sounds dirty.

O'Reilly's loaner to the rescue - they have the next wider Pitman puller, even though the website said no, and to make things easier it does not look like the uppers were original. Easy do.

Trail tools would just be those two Pitman pu;;ers. They're small they're cheap and they were great if the ball joints weren't orphaned to begin with