1992 accord. Ive read a couple threads and im still a little lost

heres what I have done.

1. Removed cotter pin and castle nut.
2. Used a big *** pry bar to break loose the lower control arm from the spindle.


now i dont know what to do. I tried to hit the ball joint with a hammer and it didnt do anything.

no my question is which way is the lower ball joint pressed in? I bought a new ball joint and it looks like it def needs to be removed from top, and not being able to pull it out from the bottom.

so does that mean I have to remove that big *** nut on the rotor so i can swing out the spindle to press it out. Thanks guys im kinda lost

 

You need a tool To get ball joints out,

It looks like this

there called ball joint forks, You can get them for air chisels or u can do it manually

You put it between the ball joint bottom and the control arm or whatever, and u either hammer it in if u have a manual one, or use the air chisel to get it in, then the ball joint will come out..

 

he doesn't need the pickle forks because he has already popped the ball joint free from the LCA, he's asking how to remove the ball joint from the knuckle.

The ball joint is pressed in from the top. No way can it be removed or install from the bottom.

To do it yourself, you need to rent a ball joint press tool, which looks a lot like a big C clamp. You can rent them at AutoZone, I think they are like $90, but of course you get that back when you return it.

You need to remove the axle nut to get the axle out of the way. You may even want to remove the knuckle from the car to make it easier but thats up to you. Once you have the axle out of the way and the knuckle supported, put the special tool around the ball joint. The big end is going to go on top of the ball joint so as you push it through, the ball joint has somewhere to go. Then put the small end on the bottom side to push it through with, you may need to remove the boot as well. Once it's all in position, start pressing the ball joint out. Once it's out and you have the new one ready to go, just flip the adapters around so that you have the big end on the bottom for the ball joint to go into and the small end on top to push with.

Sorry I don't have any pictures to help show what I'm talking about but once you have the tool in your hands you should be able to figure it out.

Good luck

also, an easy way of popping the ball joint free from the LCA, without damaging the boot like the forks tend to do, is to use a good size hammer and wack the side of the LCA where the ball joint goes through, theres a little **** there that I usually hit. A couple hits and the ball joint should pop free. Just make sure you leave the castle nut on to protect the threads incase you mis the LCA.

 

once you have the axle nut off and all.. and the lower ball joint popped free with a pickle fork (I broke a fork doing this) then you have to remove the snap ring on the ball joint.. its a clip that goes around the base of the ball joint.. then you can just hammer it out from the top with a normal hammer.. then hammer the new one in from the bottom.. thats what i did and it worked perfectly fine.

good luck.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by londonsupra &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">and the lower ball joint popped free with a pickle fork (I broke a fork doing this)</TD></TR></TABLE>

how did you break the pickle fork? Did you use it as a bry bar or something once it was hammer inbetween? If so, the wedge design of the fork will push the parts apart in turn popping the ball joint free, no need to push up or down on the fork to seperate the parts.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by londonsupra &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">... then you can just hammer it out from the top with a normal hammer.. then hammer the new one in from the bottom.. thats what i did and it worked perfectly fine.

good luck.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Did you mean to say hammer it out from the bottom, and then hammer the new one in from the top? There's a ridge that's about 1/8 inch wide on top of the balljoint and hammering it from the top will not push it out through the bottom.

 

yeah he told you reverse order,

hammer it out from ther bottom

hammer the new one in from the top

if you have an air hammer it works real good to take it out