calvinrw

Hi all,

I'm in the middle of replacing the lower control arms and lower ball joints of my 94 pickup. Being a rustbucket, I've hit many roadblocks so far, but here's one that I'm not sure how to proceed with. On the driver side, I've committed to Sawzalling off the bolts that hold the LCA to the frame, and went ahead and cut the top parts of their "U" shape off to give me room to cut the bolts. At this point, the LCA is hanging by the ball joint, which is stuck to the steering knuckle. I removed all four of the bolts that are supposed to hold them together (which required a 14mm bolt extractor socket, of course), but the stupid thing won't budge. I've spent the better part of today beating the absolute crap out of it with a 22oz framing hammer and chisel.

The passenger side ball joint gave me no trouble at all - I stuck a chisel into the slot of the ball joint assembly and after a bit of hammering, it came right off the steering knuckle.

So, what do I try next? Heat? Some sort of puller tool? Angle grinder?

Good god, rusty suspension work sucks. Thanks for any suggestions.

scope103

Get a puller, like this: https://www.harborfreight.com/tie-ro...ler-62708.html Or you can borrow a different kind from Autozone: http://www.autozone.com/loan-a-tools...oint-separator (skip the "pickle fork." ) (If you shop HF, measure your ball joint seat first. There are different sized pullers, and you want to avoid buying ALL of them if you can.)

Hammering on a ball joint is really not the right way to get it to release. Now that the lower control arm is just hanging, hammering is even less effective because you're not hitting against something "solid." A puller, properly used, doesn't care that the control arm is dangling.

As you've already learned, you can end up needing an enormous amount of force to pull rusted parts apart. So be careful; eye protection and gloves are a must for this job.

calvinrw

Thanks for the reply. I'm having a hard time picturing how I would use a puller in this situation if I went the route of borrowing one (similar to this http://www.autozone.com/loan-a-tools...ler/555631_0_0) from Autozone. I'm guessing that the "clamp"/"brace" would go against the part of the steering knuckle that the ball joint attaches to, with the screw facing downward, but what then? Do I straighten the ball joint, brace the puller's screw against it, and tighten until it pops free? If you can find an illustration or video of this, I'd really appreciate it.

Also, to be clear, I have no interest in separating the ball joint itself. I just want the whole assembly (along with the old LCA) to be separated from the steering knuckle, like at the 6:00 mark in this video: Hence, all the hammering.

nikkshepherd

If im not mistaken, on the ball joint, there are 4 little seats to help guide it into place. Applying a generous ammount of heat to the knuckle may open up the holes allowing the LBJ to come free. Good luck! sure dont miss living in the rustbelt!

calvinrw

It turns out the solution was a lot simpler than I would have guessed: With the technique shown in TheAlexManVideos' video in mind, use a larger screwdriver. The one I was using before had probably deformed the metal of the old ball joint retention plate enough that it was bottoming out in the slot between it and the steering knuckle. I picked up a 3/8 inch by 8 inch slotted screwdriver from Home Depot, stuck it in there, and after a few whacks of a hammer, it popped right off.

Now back to sawzalling the last bolt out... With any luck, she'll be back on the road for the Illinois Gambler 500 next weekend.

ksti

Yes! LOL! The race of Beaters......