2camsaam

How do you remove the LOWER BALL JOINT ??????????????
I am refering to the lower ball joint that is located behind the front brake rotor on the bottom of the HUB, it has a castle nut on it with a cotter pin that goes through it.
I tried beating off with a hammer but no budge. What's the secret? I haven't been able to drive her since last Thursday.

phantom_sol

when in doubt, ball joint puller!

infinatenexus

pickle fork

BROOD

I'm guessing that you mean removing the lower ball joint from the knuckle. You must be replacing it.
I took the entire steering knuckle from the car and inverted it on a heavy work bench. Found a heavy metal tube that just seated on the ball joint. Then used a shorty sledge hammer to drive the ball joint out.
I then used a press to install the new ball joint in the knuckle.

There are lower ball joint removal/installers on the market with Honda specific dies. But I have always had good luck with the hammer method.

Snail Tuning

unhook the lower balljoint and axle, and spin the knuckle around twards u so u can see what your doing. Next remove the small right around where the axle connects into the knuckle, it will come out by prying it with a screwdriver. next find a mini sledge and pound away at the ball joint till it pops out, mine poped out in like 2-3 hits, make sure your pounding it up not down. should do it.


Modified by bmcc72 at 9:26 AM 10/1/2003

2camsaam

I am trying to remove the lowerball joint to replace with a new one.
Here is what I am trying to remove...

Jmunk

I believe that there is a snap ring around the top of it that you need to remove first.

2camsaam

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Jmunk &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I believe that there is a snap ring around the top of it that you need to remove first.</TD></TR></TABLE>

You are right. I removed this already though.

I was advised by a very knowledgeable person that I should remove the entire arm and take it to a shop to have it pressed out .

hatchdrvr

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2camsaam &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I was advised by a very knowledgeable person that I should remove the entire arm and take it to a shop to have it pressed out .</TD></TR></TABLE>

This is good advice. Those things are a PITA! Take it to a shop and have them press the old one out and the new one in. it shouldn't cost much since you did all of the hard work for them.

Snail Tuning

oh yeah i forgot about the snap ring, u can remove it your self very easily its just installing that can be the pain. but mine went well, just tap the old one out, and tap the new one in.

Smith Wise

go to Auto Zone and for $10 they'll let you borrow their balljoint separator. then when you're done with it, bring it back and get your $10 back

doublejz

i just removed the snap ring and pressed it out, no biggy. There also is a metal ring on the inside (that goes around the hole for the axle) that pops off, if you dont remove it the ball joint wont be able to fit out.

fOmaNPu

I just beat the **** out of it with channel locks until it fell. Didn't bust it or anything

When in doubt, hit things.

FifthGearOnline

just go get it pressed out / pressed in

infinatenexus

(say it in an old mans voice) Kiddo... your going to need a BFH for this one

ScrapinSi

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by infinatenexus &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">(say it in an old mans voice) Kiddo... your going to need a BFH for this one</TD></TR></TABLE>

damn! beat me to it!

trust me... just get a BFH and a socket that fits over it... Or pull the LCA off and press it out...

b16 matt

It's a biatch. I had to take my lower control arem off on my 91 and take it to napa to have it pressed out.

goodbyegti

yeah it can be a bitch, i spent a whole day welding up a joint puller that would fit (the one i got didn't). I braced the hell out of it, did it up real tight on the joint and had to resort to a 3 foot breaker bar, gave it one big swoop and the whole puller bent into a pile of *****... oh well.. in the end i took it to a garage who couldnt get it off either so i ended up putting a split cv joint boot on... i think if you go over the top with a hammer you can break the cv joint so if you can't get it off easily take it to a shop..

Civiclx

use a pickle fork!

degooser

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2camsaam &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I was advised by a very knowledgeable person that I should remove the entire arm and take it to a shop to have it pressed out .</TD></TR></TABLE>

do that...

thats what i would do...

CXHatchback

I did this last year and took a bunch of pics for a write-up on how to replace your balljoints. I replaced mine and didn't use a press or remove the knucle completely.

1. Remove tie-rod end from knuckle
2. Remove axle nut and axle from hub
3. Rotate knuckle to the side so you can see the balljoint
4. Remove snap-ring from balljoint
5. Remove the ring that's around the hold for the axle
6. Get AT LEAST a 2.5lb sledge hammer and bang the balljoint up from the bottom. Put the castle nut on the bolt first to get more surface area.
Note: a regular hammer will do, but will take 20x more time/energy to move the balljoint.
7. Installation is reverse of removal.

CoolKat

take the knuckle off, it makes replacing the ball joint a lot easier

put the knuckle on a bench that has one of those vice clamps(not sure what they're called)

take the snap ring off, take the circular ring behind the knuckle off

then put it on the vice clamp with the ball joint faciing upside down and get a deep socket that will lay over the ball joint and hit out with a BFH

then take the knuckle and flip it back up and put the ball joint in and hammer it down with a BFH (it only took me 3 whacks) and put back the circular ring and dont forget to put the new snap ring on also

then just put yur knuckle back on the car.