How do I replace the driverside lower balljoint on a 99 civic si? I tore the boot and mushromed the stud. the castle nut cant go in anymore.

What do I need and how do I do it?

 

You need to remove the knuckle, buy another ball joint, and have a shop press the old one out and press the new one in.

 

what he said OR

u can go to your local home depot/lowes buy a 4lb hand sledge hammer use your axle socket pull your hub off the car, put your axle socket on their and beat the living **** outta it until it comes off, this is what i did, only took about 4-5 hits and it was out

reverse method for installation

you might have to remove the C-clip on top of the ball joint, some cars have them, some dont

for future reference go to autozone and rent a ball joint seperator next time, they are only 15 bucks as opposed to 35 for the ball joint, plus all the time replacing it

 

I have replaced 6 balljoints in hondas, here is what you do, buy a propane torch, and have a new ball joint ready, take off the hub with the old balljoint still in place and heat the hell out of the old balljoint, make sure you take the rubber boot off so you dont inhale the fumes from it. heat the balljoint for about 10 minutes till its hot as hell, then beat it out, it should be easy, when you have the old balljoint out, quickly go get a glass of water, with the hub still hot, clean the debris off the hole for the new balljoint with a wire brush, slide the new balljoint in and quickly pour water on the balljoint and hot area to cool it down, and prevent heat damage to the new balljoint. and then your balljoint will sit there nice and tight, youre done, bolt everything back up and away you go, dont forget to put the small ring on the bottom of the new balljoint. and dont forget to replace your cotter pins.

driving with no cotter pins is a big no no.

goodluck

 

Can't you rent a balljoint press from AutoZone? It has attachments for different size ball joints and such. You use it to press the old one out and the new one in. Never used one before but I remember seeing one at AutoZone once.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TouringAccord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Can't you rent a balljoint press from AutoZone? It has attachments for different size ball joints and such. You use it to press the old one out and the new one in. Never used one before but I remember seeing one at AutoZone once.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah you are right I just used one about a month ago and it worked great, for installing them. I usually just use a nice heavy hammer and pop the old bad balljoint out with that, but you might be able to use the tool to take them out also.

You should listen to the other guy that said go to autozone and just buy the pitman arm tool, it is only $9.99 plus tax and it works great for seperating the balljoint from the lower control arm. You want to get the smaller one of the two that is made for compact/import cars and it will work good, and unlike a pickle bar they dont rip or cut your ball joint boot.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TouringAccord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Can't you rent a balljoint press from AutoZone? It has attachments for different size ball joints and such. You use it to press the old one out and the new one in. Never used one before but I remember seeing one at AutoZone once.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I would like for you to post pics of you using it on a FF honda. lol.

I rented that BS and it was no use. I just pounded out the old ball joint and I used the middle size attachment on the bottom of the ball joint to pound it back in with a 4lbs hammer..


Modified by b cruz at 9:47 AM 9/7/2004

 

napa here charged 15 bucks each to remove and replace the ball joint just take the front knuckle to them. im not sure if thats a set price all over.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by b cruz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I would like for you to post pics of you using it on a FF honda. lol.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Like I said, I never used one before. Therefore I didn't know if it would work or not, sorry I guess I should have said that. I just remember seeing it there and thats it. But now that you've said it doesn't work I'll know for future reference to not waste my time trying it.