I was doing some work on a co-worker's SI and ended up boogering up the LBJ's getting them out and had to replace them. This was my first time doing this job, and I couldn't find one thread on here that had all the info I needed, so after getting the job done, I figured I'd make a thread.

I decided to work with the knuckles off the car. I believe this could be personal preference, as I did have to wrestle around with the loose knuckles a little bit, but had they been on the car, I don't believe I would have had the ground clearance necessary to operate the press.

First I removed the old ones. I did not have the ball joint press at this point. the 2000 Civic SI LBJ's DO NOT have a snap ring on them like other Honda models do. To remove them, I took the rubber boot off, wrapped the stud with duct tape until it was a tight fit inside my oxygen sensor socket, then put the socket over the stud and wailed on it with a 12 lb sledge hammer. This worked great and it only took a few whacks to get the ball joint to pop out.











For new LBJ installation, I did go rent the tool from Advance Auto - $150. There are lots of adapters in there, just look at them all and pick the ones that will work best. The hex on the end of the ram is 7/8" - I just ran the ram up by hand to get it tight, then hit it with my impact gun - the ball joint pulled right in. One did start to go a little crooked, so I loosened the press and set it back up to press on the "high" side of the LBJ to get it to even up. Once I did that, I re-centered it and hit it with the impact gun - it pulled right in. Oh yeah, before putting the new LBJ in, I did hit the diameter on the knuckle with some sand paper to knock down any high spots in there. I also put some grease on the OD of the LBJ to...uhm...lubricate and ease installation.









That's it, not very difficult, but I was nervous since it wasn't my car.

 

Did you have to rebleed the brakes after disconnecting the caliper?

 

No. I just pulled the caliper off the knuckle - didn't unhook the lines. Zip tie them to the spring or something else under there so they don't hang on the lines.

 

Nice write up! I hate replacing Lower Ball Joint because you have to remove the knuckle.

 

Nice Write-up. Have used this tool on many occasions to replace my ball joints.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by danomatic93 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Nice write up! I hate replacing Lower Ball Joint because you have to remove the knuckle. </TD></TR></TABLE>

no, you really dont man. All I did was removed the wheel, worked my way around a few bolts, and then took a ball joint remover (its a fork shape) and removed the ball joint. Then put the new one in, hammered it down in place, and that was it. Took no more than 20 minutes and did not require removing the knuckle. Removing the knuckle is just a personal preference. Some like to, but others dont.

 

I have a special OTC tool that presses them out and back in and takes under 10 minutes with the knuckle still hooked to the tie rod and upper control arm.

 

Great writeup. I've hammered mine out and hammered them in

O2 sensor sockets are 22mm.

 

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