How-To: Ball Joint Removal in car.

i take out the little clip, then take out the lower control arm

then i take it and wack it against the concrete…done. lol

supporting the arm with a jack/jackstand and whacking it with a hammer works too if it's not too frozen in there.

This is without taking it out and causing harm to the ball joint opening on the transverse link. I have read where guys have stretched the hole and then get slop, clunking from the ball joint after the repair.

You run a risk doing so if it is jammed in there with age. I have seen where some guys have tried creative ways to remove the ball joints and some have bent their control arms. 1-2mm bend in the metal will cause headaches when trying to align it.

Yes, that works but at a risk. Not many guys have spare Transverse links at home.

Doing it this way took 32 minutes one side and 36 minutes the other side.

Duly noted for this weekend.

i spose that's less time than the 2 hours i spent with a hammer on one of mine that was off the car… lol.

oh soak it with pb blaster on the top and bottom to loosen up any rust. but MAKE SURE that snap ring comes out!

Here is a tip, if you feel comfortable with your mechanic skill you can omit the part of removing the tie rod stud from the knuckle arm and this will speed up the process by quite a bit. It's included up there for educational purposes.

you can also take the castle nut out off and re-position it upside down so that your clamp has a larger surface area to compress against.

usually if i havent already, ill change the tie rods too. usually i hit the tie rods with a hammer on the side of the assymbly that connects to the balljoint, usually that helps loosen up the balljoint portion too.

[quote]862sik wrote: Yeah this would be a good time to replace other steering components like tie rod ends, bushings etc..

The biggest issue I had was trying to get the balljoint to go in straight. No matter how slow I went, no matter how careful I tried to be, it always ended up slightly over to the side. I should note that I used the same tools as described in the how-to. I was able to reposition the press and get them in there… however it managed to bend the threaded portion for the grease fitting, which thankfully a slightly smaller one worked… so yeah, good write-up! They are just a pain either way =p

Serious? Took me maybe 10 minutes to remove them and put them in. And they were FROZEN. Just rented a ball joint removal/instal tool. CAKE