How do you get ball joints?

[yalegolas]

Message should say how do I get the ball joints out :P

First I used some PB rust blaster stuff, then second I used the tool with a 3 feet worth of extension, the thing fell off and or would slip off and hurt my hand when under alot of pressure. Third, I attempted a screwdriver and a punch and all it did was just start to bend up the nut. I cannot get the pin out and managed to bend it in the process, now I cannot get the ball joint out. I do not have a massive selection of tools at my disposal, what I can I to get this out?

[tazzieman]

Presuming you mean the castle nut , try a little jack pressure under the tool to keep it pushed against the nut. Sometimes they are seized solid and you need to destroy the nut with a drill/Dremel. Just don't nick the control arm , you do not want a nidus for cracking or corrosion. Good luck!

Porsche 911 Ball Joint Replacement | RVB Precision

[wildcat077]

Use a 24 inch pipe wrench and a three foot fence post for extra leverage ... it works all the time

Cheers
Phil

[steely]

^^^^^
+++ 1

pipe wrench and long multifoot extension

[sundevil64]

3lb hammer and a chisel on one of the castleated edges. I heated the the arm around the nut with a torch for two heat and cool cycles and off it came. Yes I cussed at it to...

[Daviboy]

+1 ^ what I ended up doing

[gamin]

I tried most of the above on the ball joints on the 70 with much frustration and to no avail. Solution was to use an air chisel against one of the notches. Rat-a-tat-tat and off they came. Easy. Of course this requires that you have an air compressor and the proper tool. The older I get the more I love air tools.

[m110]

Spray with Kroil, if replacing then you can heat it with a torch, repeat

Control arm in:
Use jack to apply pressure up with proper tool and a 3 foot plus lever arm or
Use jack to apply pressure up with pipe wrench and tube extension (such as a jack arm) or
Pneumatic gun or
Electric impact gun (what I do)

Control arm out:
Proper old school way; two men with chisels on the cutout with the arm in a vise, pound with a sledge at the same time

Bailout:
Dremel a portion of the material of the castle nut and use one of the above techniques or
Send to a machine shop

[Monza_dh]

This is what I used: PB, a little heat, a big hammer and a nice 50 yr old heavy duty punch/chisel and the pipe wrench to finally remove....

[steely]

off in a minute

[Charles Freeborn]

"not a lot of tools" is unfortunately the problem here.
When anything is rusted stuck the best way to go about it is with an oxy acetylene torch and a pneumatic impact wrench. You've gotta go in hot and fast, get the nut and only the nut cherry red to expand it (and thus let go of what it's stuck to) and then hit it with the impact to break it loose.
Excessive hammering or wrenching with pipes on breaker bars will only bend parts you need to re-use.
If you're really good with a torch you can cut off the nut and threaded part of the joint, but that's going to really stink.
-C

[yelcab1]

OxyA torch. I need one of those...

[timmy2]

OxyA torch. I need one of those...

Plasma is quicker!

[bkreigsr]

If this is a track car - and you have more than 2.5 deg neg camber, you need to dial the camber back to factory settings, or zero, for the angle of the ball joint pin to release from the strut. No amount of trick tools, wedges, hammers, or torches will make up for the angle interference. The nut removal is another matter- grind it off and get new ones.
Bill K

[Craig_D]

I used a ball joint separator and a 2lb hammer. It took mere minutes. Get the right tools, and the job goes much more smoothly. This cost under $20 from NAPA auto.

Here's the thread LINK.

On the cardboard, on the lower left side of this picture:


Here's the same tool being used to remove the strut base from the balljoint. LINK

Picture of it in use: