Last night i was trying to take out my axles getting ready for my D16Z6 engine swap and my front driver side lower ball joint bolt thinger is fucked up.

it is bent and now the threads are chewn up on it and i cannot seperate the knuckle from the lower arm to get the axle out. I had to use my impact wrench to get the nut off and it used up all that that little impact had to get it off.

Am i royally fucked or is the lower ball joint fixable/replaceable?

 

I believe that piece is replaceable. If you've stripped out the threads, you're better off replacing it anyways. Don't want it failing on you at a critical moment. Just my 2 cents.

Travis

 

Yea you can replace it. Its easy (just hammer it out) and cheap ($15 from autozone) Good luck.

 

whoa, calm down buddy; I wish lower ball joints were that cheap ... try ~$50!

 

How bad are the threads stripped?
If it's not too bad use a thread file.
If it's real bad replace.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by maztur &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">whoa, calm down buddy; I wish lower ball joints were that cheap ... try ~$50! </TD></TR></TABLE>

WTF?!? I just replaced mine 2 days ago and they were $14 something each. What do you want a copy of the receipt too?

 

Yeah the ones with no lifetime warranty cost around that but the one's with the lifetime warranty cost about double that and some change. I replaced mine about not to long ago but I got the lifetime warranty ones because if you autox or roadrace alot they will take a dump on you faster then you think. Damn you guys got yours out with a hammer I paid like someone to press them out .

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by maztur &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">whoa, calm down buddy; I wish lower ball joints were that cheap ... try ~$50!

</TD></TR></TABLE>

now thats a BFH
upper balljoints that include the control arm for $50 maybe
my lowers were like $11 each from olympus

 

thanks for all the replies guys;

now my only problem is how to get the knuckle/spindle thinger off so that i can rip the joint out &gt;
I need to find a puller thing soon to at least get the control arm and the joint seperated :-/ my hammer isn't stout enough.

 

I dunno where you guys get it so cheap ... the cheapest I can find is $35

$50 is for my other car, oops

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ComputerJLT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">thanks for all the replies guys;

now my only problem is how to get the knuckle/spindle thinger off so that i can rip the joint out &gt;
I need to find a puller thing soon to at least get the control arm and the joint seperated :-/ my hammer isn't stout enough.</TD></TR></TABLE>

If the ball joint is already bad and you're going to replace it, then don't even worry about doing it 'right'.

Bust out the pickle fork and a sledehammer.

 

one word of advice, when popping out stubborn ball joints from there holes (not removing the whole peice) do not hit the threded part, hit the metal on the knuckel with a BFh, works every time

 

i paid $28 a piece for mine at autozone. But anyways they are easy to replace, take off circlip and hammer out.. circlip is part #24


good luck

 

I picked up a neat ball joint remover tool for about $25 bucks on ebay. I haven't had a use for it yet, but I imagine I will someday. It might be worth looking into. Hope the removal is going well for you!

Travis