I need to swap out my passenger's side driveshaft, is it really necessary to remove the lower ball joint to do this?
Some half-shafts on other cars I've seen will compress a little bit giving you enough room to install them without having to remove a bunch of stuff, that is why I'm asking.
'96 Accord Auto L4 non-vtec

TIA

 

No, you do not need to remove the ball joint.

You do have to remove the suspension fork and disconnect the sway if I recall. It's been a while since I did it. I think after I did that I was able to turn the rotor at enough of an angle to rip the axle out.

*edit*

**** I can't remember what I did, I think I did take out the ball joint when I did it. I remember prying it up with a ratchet, let me see if I have the info.

 

with the right size hammer the ball joint is no problem...

all the struggling you'll do pulling them out with the ball joint still connected won't be worth trying to avoid the cotter pins and two nuts.

 

I know you didn't ask for 'how to' but here it goes;

I wish I took pictures when I changed my drive shaft and Ball joint boot. I took my lower ball joint off. DIY in your garage:

1. Loosen The Centre Nut while wheels are still on the ground
2. Loosen wheel stud nuts
3. Jack car up enough to take the wheels off/minimum height of jack stands
4. PUT JACK STANDS
5. Remove ball joint from lower arm

VERY GOOD TIP: While the suspension fork that links to your lower arm is still attached, take out the pin/and the castle nut on the lower ball joint. Since the suspension fork is still attached, it gives the whole assembly a preload (since the suspension is pushing the arms down). Now, borrow another standard car jack and place it under the lower ball joint bolt and jack it up until it pops out.

No special tool or hammering or lots of effort required.

6. Since you took out your lower ball joint, you're able to bend the assembly at greater angle to make the driveshaft removal easier.

7. Slide out the driveshaft out of the wheel hub

8. Take out the suspension fork

9. Pry off the driveshaft from your GBX. Note: put a tray under if you're removing the right (passenger's) side coz tranny fluid may leak out.

Installation is reverse order

 

that is a very good tip, nice!

 

I struggled to separate ball joint from lower control arm, which ended up a small hole on ball joint rubber boot.
What I think the simplest way is:
1) Remove the center axle nut.
2) Remove two bolt holding the lower control arm to frame.
3) Remove damper fork
4) Remove axle by prying it or lightly knocked out.

 

I removed my lower ball join last night because I had to take the whole knuckle off. What I did was use a 24oz hammer and hit the control arm a few times. It never 'popped' loose as the other ones usually do. I just ended up pulling it straight out though after I loosened it with that hammer.

The car jack is a good trick, but couldn't you potentially damage the threads on the ball joint itself?

 

You see, the beauty of this is that you're resting the top of the jack on the bottom face of the lower ball joint bolt (not clamping it to any threads). Jack it up, pushing the ball joint up while the suspension is pushing the lower arm down. I can even do it at night without pissing off my neighbors from noise.

 

you mean like mushroooming the end of the bolt right. i think with repeated removal it could. that's why when remove one i use a hammer i hit the lower control arm and then tap upwards on the bolt/joint i leave the nut on the end to protect the threads. kind of a common good-practice thing.

 

Thanks for all the helpful replies everybody! I'm going to try the car jack trick with the ball joint, see how it goes.

 

Again, thanks for the helpful advice guys (gals). Finally got the driveshaft and trans. fluid changed last weekend. The DS was hosed. The boots had big weather cracks in them, and the joints were all floppy and moved in and out a lot when you pulled on them. I guess 200k will do that. The trans drain plug came out with a half inch of glopped up oil stuck to it (hadn't been changed in 2 years and XX miles). Now its shifting a lot better.