I'm trying to remove the balljoint on the lower control arm (front, passenger side) and it's not coming out.
Please read all the methods I've tried below and let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks

The driver side came out pretty easily (I used a pickle fork because I will be replacing the balljoints anyways)
But the passenger side seems like it's welded on or something.

Here's what I've tried so far:
- Sprayed the joint with LiquidWrench (probably done this 8 times since last week)

- Hit the LCA with a 7lb hammer where the balljoint goes in (I asked the mechanics at my dealer and this is the method they use)

- Used a pickle fork (did this, and have tried hitting it w/ 7lb hammer like 2000 times, seriously, I weigh 200 lbs, 6' tall and work out with weights. This thing SHOULD have come loose by now

- Tried the trick where you put the castle nut and socket on the bottom, and put a concrete block under the socket, then lower the whole car so the weight goes right onto the balljoint (ie use the weight of the car to pop it loose)

- Finally earlier tonight, I gave in and bought a high quality balljoint separator tool (Pitman arm thing). It mounted up very snugly and I started rotating the bolt. As it started getting tighter and tighter, I had to switch to my breaker bar because it was so hard to turn the bolt.

After about 5-8 rotations, my jaw was on the floor because it SHOULD have cracked loose by now.
So I backed off the bolt and examined the balljoint.

This part amazed me...
The bolt had actually COMPRESSED where the cotter pin hole is!

Oh man. Have any of you seen a balljoint as stubborn as this?
Any ideas how to remove it? I'm taking a dinner break now, sigh
Thanks


Modified by TAG at 7:13 PM 12/18/2004

 

Did you remove the snap ring? I didn't see anything in your post about that.

 

yeah samething happened to me had to cut off the mushroomed part of the balljoint to get the nut back on. i tried everything too, wd-40, pickle fork, hammer, pitman arm, etc. at elast i wasn't trying to get the ball joint out i had to change the axles, but i will have to replace all the ball joints soon so i think i'm just gonna cut, heat and drill it until it comes out. hope you have better luck

 

>> Did you remove the snap ring? I didn't see anything in your post about that.
Are you referring to the cotter pin (by the castle nut)?
If so, yes - that was the first thing I removed.

vtec94civic
Thanks for your reply. So you had the bolt mushroom out too, eh?
WOW. Ok, at least I now know I am not the only one.
I was originally going to just remove the axles (I'm doing an engine swap) but the balljoints were already ripped and I had planned on replacing them.

I guess I need to remove the LCA and balljoint and replace both. Dang

 

Dumb question....

I want to remove the [LCA + balljoint] combination now.
Can I do this easily without damaging the knuckle?

I've got the damper fork removed, the radius arm removed, the bolt where the LCA joins the rest of the suspension (by the tranny), etc.

Right now, the knuckle assembly is still connected to the car.
Just trying to figure out how to remove the balljoint area from the knuckle

any help appreciated

 

if you really cant get the balljoint separated from the lca, and are gonna replace it anyway...rip the balljoint boot off, wipe away the grease and cut the stud of the balljoint between the top of the lca and the bottom of the actual balljoint. hacksaw or sawzall, just do it carefully. that way you can finish removing the entire knuckle for your break swap and just bang out the seized part of the stud in the lca with a hammer and a awl or screwdriver. good luck...i ******* hate balljoints

 

Thank you. Just the advice/info I was looking for at this stage of the game.
I'll use a hacksaw and slice that sucker in half tomorrow morning. Then I can get back to my engine removal, etc.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by blackeg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">good luck...i ******* hate balljoints</TD></TR></TABLE>
ROFL hahaaaa -- ditto!!!

 

in the above post he is not referring to the cotter pin that goes through the castle nut.... there is a circlip (c-clip) that is at the base of the ball joint... if you do not remove this the ball joint will never come off

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by acurar0ss &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">in the above post he is not referring to the cotter pin that goes through the castle nut.... there is a circlip (c-clip) that is at the base of the ball joint... if you do not remove this the ball joint will never come off </TD></TR></TABLE>

Ah, thanks for the clarification.

Yeah, I was trying to remove the balljoin stud from the LCA. So no need for me to remove the circlip (yet!)
But.,.... now that that balljoint is not coming out, I guess I need to remove the balljoint entirely. So your information about that circlip is indeed helpful now. I also saw this mentioned in my helms this morning.

Thanks....time to go cut out my stupid balljoint.

 

1.) make sure the lower control arm is still attatched to everything.
2.) jack up the suspension assembly by the rotor.
3.) insert a 1/2" socket wrench in between the knuckle and the lower control arm.
4.) lower the jack.

this is what i do to seperate lower balljoints. this method has never failed me.

 

^what he said^ also know as the craftsman rachet trick, I did it last week, works like a charm....

Think there is a video on this site somewhere

 

3-4 hard hits with a hammer right on that little nub that sticks of the LCA is all I have ever had to do. I don't see how a big guy with a big hammer could not get this out.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bailhatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">3-4 hard hits with a hammer right on that little nub that sticks of the LCA is all I have ever had to do. I don't see how a big guy with a big hammer could not get this out.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yup, normally I would agree with you!
But this is the "1-in-a-million" balljoint that is completely frozen/welded together unlike all the others you've seen.
I wish I could have you here, and let you take a swing at it yourself. After 30 minutes of wailing away on it, you would rub your chin and shrug too. It's a complete bastard

MugenDude:
Thanks for the suggestion!
I thought I had found all the methods out there (searched H-T, Google, called car buddies, etc). But I had not heard of this one yet.
...Lemme go find my 1/2" socket and give it a whirl

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TAG &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Yup, normally I would agree with you!
But this is the "1-in-a-million" balljoint that is completely frozen/welded together unlike all the others you've seen.
I wish I could have you here, and let you take a swing at it yourself. After 30 minutes of wailing away on it, you would rub your chin and shrug too. It's a complete bastard

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

lol i wish I could give it a try. I don't know about northern cali but up here in Maine we have some nasty salt and subsequent corrosion. I deal with shitty seized parts daily. Maybe heat up the control arm end a bit and then try one of these prying tricks or good solid sledge whack.

 

TAG, ive had the same experience with one of my balljoints. just like you i tried everything, even experienced the compressed cotter pin hole. and yes i know the BFH trick, it wasnt enough for this. its my fault really, because i remember the last time i reinstalled the balljoint, i overtorqued it which is why it was so unreasonably tight in there.

eventually, i just hacksawed it off to separate the knuckle and the lower control arm. that doesnt quite solve the problem however. you now have to remove whats left of the balljoint in the lower control arm. i basically drilled it out until most of the material was gone and it no longer had the strength to stay inside the tapered well, and it was easily pounded out, finally....

good luck, i feel ya.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MugenDude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">1.) make sure the lower control arm is still attatched to everything.
2.) jack up the suspension assembly by the rotor.
3.) insert a 1/2" socket wrench in between the knuckle and the lower control arm.
4.) lower the jack.

this is what i do to seperate lower balljoints. this method has never failed me.</TD></TR></TABLE>

This is the way. I wasted over an hour beating my LCA/balljoint to get it seperated and gave up. The next day, after learning this trick, spent 30 seconds on each side to bust them loose. It took more than just lowering the jack. You may have to stomp on the hub/brake rotor to pop it out.

 

Just thought I'd post a pic of my broken balljoint separator, haha
I guess the shear strength of broken threaded bolt was weaker than the bonds between the balljoint and LCA - wow

Tomorrow morning I'll try the other tricks/suggestions you guys posted. Stay tuned.

 

I have had one stick so bad that hitting it with a hammer, doing the craftsman trick with me jumping on the end and bouncing up and down on the end of the ratchet did not work. The way that we finally got it off was with teamwork... I had the Craftsman ratchet and was bouncing on the end of it while a friend of mine hit the LCA with a 7lb hammer. This did the trick. Hope this might help. Or just cut the thing off like stated above... since you are replacing them.
Later, Scott

 

Well, I happened to come across an article that shows the socket trick (and video).

Thanks MugenDude, and others who suggested this trick. I'm gonna try it tomorrow morning.

(I had to focus on some work and house stuff this past week, so the CRX project was on hold until now)

Here's the link to the article. Nice pics.
http://www.d-series.org/forums...14079
Anyone know which codec I need to view the video?
Thanks

*** Update: I found out I needed the DIVX codec installed on my system (running Windows Media Player 9).
Link to download this codec: http://www.divxmovies.com/codec/
Good information and utilities for Windows Media Player on this website:
http://www.updatexp.com/codec-....html



Modified by TAG at 12:08 AM 12/30/2004

 

I have a related problem, but before I start disassembling things, I want to ask you folks your opinion on this first.

The 2001 Prelude ran into a big puddle here in SoCal's recent deluge, and flaoted towards the curb. The right front wheel slamed into the curb, with wheels turned to the left. The mark on the wheel shows it hit almost near the center.

Now, I can measure about +5 degree camber on the right front wheel. Car still drives fine, and the damper strut still operates smoothly.

So my question is: some part of the suspension is bent, but only in a small way.

What's the best way to tell what's broken?

Take all the pieces apart, and compare each piece's dimension with the good piece on the other wheel?

What I'm worried about is that the amount it's bent by may be too small to judge by eye.

Are there any tricks you folks know of to quickly isolate where the problem is?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MugenDude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">1.) make sure the lower control arm is still attatched to everything.
2.) jack up the suspension assembly by the rotor.
3.) insert a 1/2" socket wrench in between the knuckle and the lower control arm.
4.) lower the jack.

this is what i do to seperate lower balljoints. this method has never failed me.</TD></TR></TABLE>
pictures of this????

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ferio 95 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">pictures of this????</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yup, I posted this above....

Here's the link to the article. Nice pics

http://www.d-series.org/forums...14079

 

wow thats badass

 

Fucken balljoints suck.

im afraid to touch mine because it spins. i had a hard time getting back on. I can feel ya pain bruh. good luck with getting it off.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TAG &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Yup, normally I would agree with you!
But this is the "1-in-a-million" balljoint that is completely frozen/welded together unlike all the others you've seen.
I wish I could have you here, and let you take a swing at it yourself. After 30 minutes of wailing away on it, you would rub your chin and shrug too. It's a complete bastard

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

i feel ya pain....(shaking head)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fasthatch89 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i feel ya pain....(shaking head)</TD></TR></TABLE>
Thanks

Update:
Well, I couldn't get this method to work for me.
No matter how high I jacked up the hub assembly I could not squeeze my breaker bar (or socket wrench) in the gap. And everything else I had (metal) was not square and just kept sliding out whenever I put it in the gap.

I even reinstalled the control arm, thinking maybe this would help enlarge the gap, but no luck.

Oh well...Saturday I'm going to just dissasemble the whole knuckle.
F-ing balljoints, sigh