Well my driver side axle is busted. When trying to remove it i came across a problem. My neighbor was helping me who had just recently changed out his on his hatch. We removed a few bolts but cannot get the stupid lower ball joint out. In my helms it shows a tool to use but my neighbor got his out without this tool. We tried so many diffrent ways to pry it out but it wont budge. do i need this tool or am i doing something wrong. help me out!

 

use a good size hammer and hit the lower arm (NOT the ball joint or stud) but hit the lower arm dead on from the side a few times and it will come right out.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 99Hybrid_Hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">use a good size hammer and hit the lower arm (NOT the ball joint or stud) but hit the lower arm dead on from the side a few times and it will come right out.</TD></TR></TABLE>

worked for me!! the stud rotated around in there and will snap loose. the problem i had was when i went to put them back on. the stud kept rotating when i tried to tighten it on the pass side. good luck

 

sure fire method to get that sucker to pop off is to jack up the car put it on stands, then jack up the knuckle (thus compressing the spring) so you can put something (for example the handle end of a craftmens 1/2" breaker bar), make sure its secure, and then lower the jack slowly. before you know it "pop" the lca is free. no more banging and ****, by this methond you let the spring do the work for you.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RoyFokker &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">sure fire method to get that sucker to pop off is to jack up the car put it on stands, then jack up the knuckle (thus compressing the spring) so you can put something (for example the handle end of a craftmens 1/2" breaker bar), make sure its secure, and then lower the jack slowly. before you know it "pop" the lca is free. no more banging and ****, by this methond you let the spring do the work for you.</TD></TR></TABLE>

i jacked the car up and put it on jack stands. i used the jack and rasied the car up by the lower arm i than put a hammer directly under the bolt and lowered the jack. no go, the car was balenced by the hammer under the bolt which i un screwed the nut from. i made sure it was not on the jack by lowering it alot. the bolt would not raise out of the lca!!!!!!!!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 99Hybrid_Hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">use a good size hammer and hit the lower arm (NOT the ball joint or stud) but hit the lower arm dead on from the side a few times and it will come right out.</TD></TR></TABLE>

tried this also but it wont budge. am i forgetting something?

 

you did it wrong! I meant to put something btw the LCA and Knuckle, and NOT something under the bolt.... nothing goes under.

basically you sandwich something between the lca and the knuckle, it will be a tight fit, and becareful b/c if what ever you put in there is not secure, the pressure generated by the compressed springs will shot it out and you will get hurt. so when everything is ready, slowly lower the lca/knuckle.

 

oh i recommend you loosen the castle nut, leaving plenty of room to break loose, but don't total remove it from the ball joint bolt. b/c when the lca pops off, it might pop off violently. so if you have the castle nut still on the bolt, the lca will not go shooting off and thus preventing damaging the threads on the ball joint bolt.

 

Oh ok, thanks man i'll try it out in the morning.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RoyFokker &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I meant to put something btw the LCA and Knuckle</TD></TR></TABLE>

I am new to all this suspension **** where is the knuckle located?

 

man i had this trouble with my dx on both sides and my friends SI also ... i had to unbolt everythign on that side of the car underneath... its not hard there are about 4 extra bolts to do and then you can swing the whole thing out ... those bolts arent hard to break loose and it saves a big headache ... if you dont understand hit me up on AIM ... jlaudio2112

 

okay, here we go. behind the brake rotors. you will see a ball joint (rubber boot, similar to a cv boot but 10 times smaller). right below it is a metal ring with a ball joint bolt stick thru it, and connected to that is the stuck LCA you want to pop off. when you jack up the lca, along with the knuckle and ball joint, you will compress the springs. At the same time the space between the ball joint and lca will get larger. large enough to stick something in there. And when you lower the lca/ball-joint, that space will want to disappear, but if you have something large enough there it will push the lca free from the ball joint.

so to answer your question: youre aim for a space between the lca and metal ring that holds the ball joint. make sure the rubber boot is not pinched when you sandwich something between the above mentioned area

 

i got it!!!!!!!!!!! THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!