I am so close to swapping out the engine now, but what is the best way to remove the castle nut on the lower ar,? Of course the dealership uses a special tool and of course that is not available anywhere.....

use a puller to get the castle nut off? HELP PLEASE!!

 

Can you not get the nut off, or the joint seperated?

 

can't get the castle nut off that is on the bottom of the ball joint (to the control arm)

won't budge with a breaker bar and plenty of PB...

 

So you're referring to number 27 in the pic?


Hold it steady and then kick the bastag3 loose,
I find that sudden impact works better breaking
some bolts loose.

Heat it up if you have a torch and you need to just
don't burn the balljoint.

 

yeah #27...there was a cotter pin in there but that is out.


unfortunately I do not have a torch....kicking the bastard now...

 

Wd40 and a 1/2 breaker bar got it done for me, i bought a pitman arm puller from a local parts store to seperate the lca from knuckle. Make sure a piece of cotter pin isnt stuck in there.
Edit: **** 1 minute to late

 

Ok....got both the castle nuts off....what about the ball joints now? Page 16-3 of the service manual mentions a special tool...(?)

Do i really need that or is there another way to separate the ball joints?

and I take it the ball joints need to come off right?

 

you can buy a propane torch kit from pretty much any hardware store for around $20 or less. is the ball joint spinning or is nothing moving? to get leverage, put your feet up in the fender well and give some good jerks to the breaker bar liek you are one of those pro boat-rowing racing guys or whatever...

edit, damn, slow typing i guess... if the ball joint is spinning, put a block of wood above the control arm to fit up against the top of the fender well and jack it up so it pinches and it won't spin. if the threads are dirty, they might get stuck and the joint will spin, but just go back and forth with the nut with a box wrench and after a while, it will clear the threads out. you just need torque to push past the grime in the threads.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NoVALude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ok....got both the castle nuts off....what about the ball joints now? Page 16-3 of the service manual mentions a special tool...(?)

Do i really need that or is there another way to separate the ball joints?

and I take it the ball joints need to come off right?</TD></TR></TABLE>

A good hammer is your friend.

I'm not saying that you should do this, but if you take a hammer and hit it
on the sides of the arm down by the balljoint and then down(not too hard)
on it eventually it should separate.

Out of curiosity, why are you taking apart the lca,
to remove the axles?

 

just get the tool from Autozone on loan (fully refundable deposit) or buy it for $10-15 - comes in handy for working on Honda suspensions. sometimes referred to as a pitman arm puller.

look here:

http://www.ntpog.org/mods/fift...shtml

easy as that - no risk of damaging the joint with a hammer

 

Yes, get one of these, but the smaller one, they sell them at autozone.


Tip - Screw the castle nut BACK onto the balljoint upside down, until the end of the treads are covered and flush the castle nut. This is to keep the end of the balljoint from "mushrooming" out and causing a HUGE PITA when you use the tool to push it out. Trust me, BUY THE TOOL, it will be the best 10$ you will ever spend. Hammers suck.