McQuaid

Hi Guys

Im about to attempt to renew my upper ball joints on my front axle, is it straight forward enough?? anything to watch out for?? any special tools required??

McQuaid

problem already...cotter pin siezed...any ideas????

Ardent

What do you mean seized? The pin should be pretty easy to remove, but give us more info on what's going on.

Once you have the pin and castle nut off, leave the BJ bolted to the upper Control Arm (the 4 bolts on top). Then place a jack about 1-2 inches below the LCA. Then use a BFH and bang on the spindle where it meets the BJ until it falls off. If that doesn't work, you could try a BJ puller or pickle fork.

McQuaid

I can't remove the pin..it's stuck solid in the bolt/nut...to such an extent that it bent the top of my long nose pliers!

What's LCA?? I assume BFA is a big f***in hammer??

Ardent

Lower Control Arm. Sorry.

Correct on the hammer.

Can you tap the pin with a hammer to break the rust? Maybe grab a box wrench and try turing the castle nut- maybe its pinching the pin. Heat?

Yopar

iTrader: (2)

You'll have to get in there and tweak that cotter pin out ... Like Ardent just said, maybe the nut is forced against it, so try turning it a little with a wrench. After this, I usually use a pickle fork to separate the BJ from the spindle. I leave the BJ castle nut on a few turns, so when the BJ shaft comes loose from the spindle, it doesn't all fly apart.

McQuaid

i had to pop out to the shops so had to give up on it for today : ( do i need to remove the steering knuckle??? i will try some heat and turning that nut to free the pin....i also have another issue with my brake proportioning valve/ load sensing valve, its leaking....so needs to be replaced, what do you suggest i replace it with as i hear there quite a few options as in some manually adjustablke ones etc?????

Greentoyo00

Second Yopar. Back that castle nut off but not all the way off. Also keeps you from ruining the threads on the balljoint should you have to put it back together if you can't get it loose. Hammer and pickle forked worked for me but that was on my old Nissan.
Good luck.

McQuaid

cheers guys, i got this done on one side, took me longer than expected but its done./........my new BJ came with a bleed nipple type object, obv for greasing but what i wanna know is do i have to do this now or will there be grease in there??

91 4Runner

Nope, they are empty. They need to be done once installed! Good to hear you got the one side done. I just did the driverside the otherday when I installed the Ball-Joint spacers and had the same issue with the cotterpin, so I just took the sawzall to the castle nut flush with the top of the spindle and slced it off!

McQuaid

i actually just twisted the nut off and it ate up the cotter pin...i couldnt get that pin out so i said feck it... what grease do you reccomend?? do i have to go buy a grease gun now???

Wes94

The cotter pin is pretty soft metal. i had good luck with drilling them out when i took my steering apart.

McQuaid

yeh i was talking to a guy and he just said rip them out by loosening the nut...it worked just fine, but im worried about the grease, what grease do i put in this BJ? standard bearing grease?

sundog kid

Im literally doing the exact same thing as you right now, and I had the same problem with the codder pin.

For grease, I use bearing pack grease, the typical goop you find in shop grease guns.

I may be stating the obvious, but make sure you dont over fill the boot

McQuaid

how do you get the fecking grease into it?? i bought myself a grease gun but it just all over laps out of the nipple instead of going in??? the gun i have isnt a kinda point, its a thing for nipples but cant get it in

cadman

Where did you get the balljoints from? OEM are already packed with grease and I would hope aftermarket are too.


The obvious is to make sure you have the correct zerk fitting on the bj and the appropriate fitting on the grease gun. If grease leaks out then you probably just need to tighten the collar on the grease gun fitting and keep it straight as possible while pumping the handle. Ocassionally the spring loaded ball in the zerk fitting is stuck, so just push it in with a screwdriver to break it free.

I replaced all four balljoints a couple weeks ago and only one of them was a little tough to break free. I put 3/16" shims under the pickle fork, beat it a little harder and finally it came out. The castle nuts lined up correctly on only two of the studs, so I just safety wired the other two.

sundog kid

Here a valuable tip i picked up in a shop a long time ago about grease nipples.

take something pointy, and work the grease nipple ball, make sure it 'breaks' when pressure is applied to it.

Once youve done that, hold the grease gun fitting on it,and apply pressure. grease nipples can be a PITA.

cadman

The same tip I just posted.

mark_H

I just replaced my front ball joints, I used a pitman arm puller to break them loose. The pickle fork didn't get it for this one.

ovrrdrive

Another tip to make it easier to replace the upper bj's is to jam a block of wood in between the upper control arm and the bumpstop before you jack it up. This gives you some extra room and makes it easier to maneuver the spindle back on the ball joint.

I use a 1x4 I have in the shop for that.

Also the last time I did it I had a lot of trouble using the pickle fork too. I was already in the job and didn't want to go to the store again so I ended up putting a pair of pliers under the fork and it gave me just enough extra bulk to break it loose. It ruined the pliers though...

All of the aftermarket ball joints I have seen are regreasable and come with no grease in them. They're half the price of oem though so they work in a pinch. After you grease them that is.