Ball Joint Wrench Socket
 

I received the socket (PEL-TOL-P210) for the ball joint to A-Arm Nut. Anyone knows why it is "FOR INSTALLATION ONLY"? It looks to me as the perfect tool to also take the nut off.

Juergen

Torque on the new nut is 184 foot pounds.
Torque needed to remove the old nut......usually astronomical.
Chances of rounding off the tits on the new socket during removal a quite high.

You can use a big ass pipe wrench with a three foot fence post extension to remove the ball joint nuts,the socket is for reinstallation purposes !

Cheers
Phil

been using mine for years to get the nut off. ignorance is bliss.

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I will give it a try on Saturday using the tool. So far my car has not given me much trouble taking parts off (shocks, engine and transmission mounts, O2 sensor, etc.). I hope this will also be the case. If I can't get the nut off with a "reasonable" amount of force I may just use a Dremmel Tool and cut it off. I did order new nuts anyway.

Juergen

I have heard folks use cold chisels and Dremel cutoff wheels to remove the old item, carefully, so as to leave all threading in good nick. Like the pin, these are use-once items that you discard for new (IMHO).

Replaced the Ball Joints last Saturday. I ended up using my Dremel to cut the old nut as much as possible and then a chisel and a big hammer to get it off. Worked pretty well. Still need to finish some other maintenance items and then I can drive the car again.

Juergen

The above is the method I also used to remove the old ball joints....

As to installing the new ball joints, my procedure was a bit different from most:

After looking at the cost of the special socket plus the fact that I do not have a torque wrench that will go that high, I took the newly powder coated control arms to a local Porsche independent shop and for essentially the cost of the socket he installed both ball joints.

I didn't have to buy a fairly expensive socket that I would use one time nor try to borrow a big enough torque wrench. YMMV but this worked really well for me.

I used this tool by KD Tool and it worked OK for installation:
KD Tools 4 Lug 4WD Spindle Nut Socket 1 2 Ton GM Dana 50 3937 | eBay
Fraction of the cost.

I have the KD tool from previous projects, and could not get the nut loose even with heat and soaking for a few days. Chisel and a BFH removed it in 2 min. I consider it a replacement part anyway.