Hi all,

I decided to work on my bad front passenger CV half shaft and replace it with a new GSP shaft. My vehicle is a 97 Honda Civic 97 with manual transmission.

I followed the Honda Service manual pages 16-3 to 16-5. Here is what i did.

1> Loosened the 4 wheel nuts (19 mm). With a long pipe, released the hub nut (32 mm) after chiseling out the notch in hub nut.
2> Raised both the front wheels and rested them on jack stands.
3> Removed the bolt (14 mm i believe, but i probably used a 9/16" socket) on the upper collar of the damper fork.
4> Removed the bolt (17 mm bolt head and nut) of the damper fork which connects to the lower control arm. Completely pulled out the damper fork and set it aside.
5> Disconnected the steering arm by unbolting the 17 mm castle nut and used a ball joint remover. Now the wheel hub is held by the upper arm from the suspension and the lower control arm.
6> HERE is the where i am stuck! I am supposed to remove the lower control arm from the ball joint. I loaded up a pivot type ball joint i loaned from Advance Auto. Upon loading the ball joint on the ball joint bolt, I turned 5 to 6 threads only to realize that the bolt head with the pin hole had deformed (shown in the picture below). The ball joint seems to be tight and has not separated even a bit. I tried to get force screw the castle nut hoping that the nut would catch a couple threads on the bent head and straighten it. But to no avail! The CV shaft is also stuck in the splines on the wheel hub.

I wonder how to get the ball joint separated. A new ball TRW ball joint is around $30. With the damaged head i might have to get the ball joint replaced. But, getting the ball joint to separate has been just futile.

Any advise to help me out of this situation would be much appreciated.

Please check out the picture below which should better explain the above issue.

Thanks,

Kris

 

It helps to leave the shock fork on until after you separate the lower ball joint as it puts some tension on it. You can either hit the side of the lower control arm where the ball joint stud goes through with a large ball pean hammer or you can jack up the lower control arm and and wedge something between the LCA and the knuckle (craftsmen 1/2" drive ratchet works really well here) lower the jack and if necessary take your foot and push down on the knuckle.

video of the second method shown below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISY8bGof3bQ

 

The second one was very impressive. Wow neat! No torn boots, no deformed head as in my case either. I am going to try that out tomorrow. Thanks!

 

That second method works every time. You'll obviously need to replace the ball joint.

 

I had a hell of time getting my lowers to release not to long ago. I actually ruined the a pickle fork in the process.

What I did was stick the fork in there, pound on it a little bit, and basically jumped on it. After a few good jumps they pooped free. Doing so tore the boots.

I did what the video does, and it didn't help me.

I would not reuse the ball joint. Just go ahead and replace it while your in there.

For the cv, just tap on it with a hammer a couple times. Sometimes they don't want to pop out, but a free good taps will normally get them out.

 

you may end up having to cut the end of the bad ball joint off to get the LCA to seperate from it. and use a rubber mallet to tap the axle out of the spindle/wheel bearing.

 

Thanks for all the replies to my issue. They have given me a renewed hope.

Next week or so, i am going to be installing CV shafts in an other Civic, that i am buying. I would like to know if there is a proven method to do so without having to go through the additional steps of replacing the ball joints? I wonder how seized up the ball joints are in the '95 Civic that i am buying.

Would leaving the castle nut at the start of the ball joint thread before using the ball joint separator prevent the deformation of the tip (and the thread)?

 

From what I have seen the cause of that is someone hitting the threaded portion with a hammer.

Which I have done several times on my personal car, and haven't had that happen.

My friend and I just pulled his axle the other day, (94 EX) and a couple of good whacks to the LCA and it was free.

You never know, the 95 may just come right out. My car is the only one I have ever had any trouble with. I am 99.5% sure I was the first time in a long to drop the lCA

 

the bending of it is from hitting with a hammer or excessive prying. you could try to remove the castle nut and tapping the lca and the weight of it may drop it right out, or wedge a jack inbetween control arms and using it to force them apart.

 

Update: I managed to separate the ball joint yesterday after some strikes on the LCA with a heavy hammer and wedging the tapered handle of my wrench between the joint by lifting the LCA using the jack. I then took it to NAPA machine shop and had the ball joint replaced with a new TRW ball joint for $25. And then put up the assembly together. I am trying to get an alignment done now.

Anyways, i thank all for their ideas on this issue. I was able to get it done.