On my driver side lower ball joint is stripped and I am thinking about just replacing the lower ball joint altogether. However I can't get the knuckle off because the upper castle nut bolt thing that holds the knuckle just spins when i try to tighten or loosen it because the upper bolt and nut just spin together. Does anyone know how to replace a lower ball joint? From what I heard I will need a press, so I may be better of replacing the knuckle altogether. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

take it to a machine shop and have it a new one pressed in will prolly be the easy thing to do in your case

 

But I can't get the upper bolt off, any suggestions?

 

use some pressure...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Throwdown &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">use some pressure... </TD></TR></TABLE>

get some big pliers to squeeze the joint and knuckle together so the ball joint stud won't spin while you back the nut off.

 

if you are using an impact gun you can just grab a sledge hammer and bash on the top of it while hammering it with the gun. works every time for me.

 

you can disconnect the upper control arm from the car by removing 2 bolts, this will let you take the uca and knuckle out together. you can then take it to a shop to have it separated as some have suggested. but personally, i like to do it myself so i would get a balljoint separator and use it to put pressure on the nut to hold it in place while i crank on. other option is to bust out some cutting tools and cut the nut/stud off and replace the balljoint or uca.

 

crap, forgot you asked about the lower balljoint too. anyways, take the knuckle out and use a hammer (and/or a socket over the LBJ stud if you want) and pound the ball joint out, you will probably break a sweat but it'll come out. replace UBJ as well while everything is out.

 

i had that exact same problem. i tried everything i could think of. my dad and i spent hours tryin to loosen the nut. the ball joint was bad anyway so i ended up cutting it in half with a saw zaw. not exactly the way i wanted to go about fixin it but it worked i guess. good luck.