been to 3 places looking for the right kind of puller described in my helms manual with no luck. any other way to pull apart the lower arm so I can take off the bad CV axles?

 

put a couple nuts on the ball joint and just hammer it out.

 

put the castle nut back on.. then theres a little protrusion(sp) where the ball joint goes through, get a big hammer and beat the crap out of that, also if it doesnt comes out easily, get someone to hold a pry bar and push down the arms whiel you hit it with the hammer, and if that doesnt work you'll probably need an air hammer w/ a picklefork.

 

yup we already did all that too - and it didn't even budge!

heh -holy crap.
maybe i need to find the puller

 

I can pull axles in 7 min. because I dont bother with ball joints. I just pull the bolt that holds the front of the lca to the body the whole knuckle will move out of the way and out comes the axles. Calm down, its ok. A pickle fork will ruin it garunteed.

 

find a good puller...its well worth what ever u have to pay. Also you can take a blow torch and heat the arm up and it will help get the ball joint out.

 

HT rocks... you guys rock - thanks for all the tips. i'll let you know what i do

 

Do what kinesistech said, it's a lot easier and you won't screw anything up. A lot less of a headache.

 

thanks again!

 

Whats an "Ica"?????????????? I'd like to be able to pull mine in minutes to!
Schu

 

lca - lower control arm was my interpretation

 

Pitman arm puller. ~$15 at Autozone. Or just put a wrench handle between the knuckle and lca and compress the suspension with a jack.


http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...ie_rod_end.jsp

or larger...


http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...pitman_arm.jsp

 

this was our next bet actually... i'll try the other suggested options if it doesn't work as well.

thanks again guys...

 

I tries this once and ended up with a broken puller rather than a separated ball joint. Honestly, the best approach if you don't have a puller is to remove the lower control arm.

 

I worked around mine. I unbolted the whole arm and worked the axle out under the fork.

I'm suprised no one has ever done that.. EASY as ****.

 

Well the pitman arm puller didn't hold on, so we took off the lower control arms. It looked like just unbolting the arm (from the chasis) wouldn't be enough so we went ahead and unbolted the radius arm and sway bar from the LCA first (not much more work) and then put the new axles in. All good now!

thanks all!

 

Yeah, I wasn't sure what model you had but the radius arms would also need to move if it has them.

 

Here is a trick I learned on H-Tech a few years ago. I'm surprised that on one posted it.

thread the castle nut (or any flange nut) on to the end of the ball joint stud enough to cover the end with the holes in it (get it down to the full threads). Place a couple of sturdy concrete blocks under the ball joint, place a 15 mm socket over the nut and then carefully lower the car untill the ball joint stud/socket is resting on the blocks. Let the weight of the car work for you. If the ball joint doesn't pop free just from that, a few shap whacks with a 5lb. sledge hammer on the side of the lca around the ball joint should do the trick.

This is the only method I ever use now and it works every time.

Mike