Getting Ball Joint Out of the Front Hub

[burrellbloke]

@EthanMenace and I are trying to remove the front damper and hub all in one piece to swap out the suspension. We have nearly worked it out but cannot see an easy way to get the lower ball joint free of the hub so that we can slide off of the driveshaft.



Is there a simple way to get the end of the ball joint thread out so that we can get the damper and hub off of the car?

 

[link]

Couple of ways; one is brute force and ignorance, the other is use one of these bad boys... https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-cht702-3-piece-ball-joint-separator-set/

 

[link]

Just remember to wind the nut back on so you don't dome the end of the thread... Big pry bar comes in handy too

 

[RSRowe]

A pry bar for leverage, and at the same time hit the metal part of the ee bracket which the joint goes through.
I would not recommend hitting the end of the joint itself

 

[burrellbloke]

Thanks - I am off to see if my local Machine Mart has the splitter set in stock, if not I am going to buy a large ball joint splitter fork. Hopefully brute force with some tools will work.

 

[RSRowe]

Honestly it isn’t needed at all. Get the jack out the way, and get a bar in so it’s applying some pressure. It’s a pain to get a bar in and get some purchase on something, but you’ll get it eventually.

It’ll come out easier like that than any fork/splitter will ever do.

I wouldn’t have the jack under the disc either (unless you’re just using it to catch the weight of the hub)

 

[RSRowe]

Get some copper grease for when you reassemble too

 

[j!mbob]

Use a weighty hammer to break the taper of the ball joint!

 

[turkie172]

Have you disconnected the anti roll bar and the anti rotation link and track rod end you need to lift the arm up so the anti rotation link can be lifted out of the arm. Put the jack under the arm ball joint be careful not to rip the boot on it. Then tap the ee bracket forward a little or as above put the nut back on the ball joint using as many threads as possible so you can hit the nut without damaging the thread ends the shock should break the bond to the taper.

 

[burrellbloke]

We finally separated the ball joint. Thank you for everyone's suggestions.

We tried the pry bar and club hammer method but the ball joint taper would not budge.

We tried a ball joint separator fork and that didn't work either - in fact it was just irritating as every time it touched the floor it made a ringing noise.

@link idea of buying "one of these bad boys" finally worked.



The ball joint on the passenger side finally came out with an impact gun and the Clarke's ball joint separator. When we did the drivers side it came off without much effort at all. I think the ball joint we had an issue with was just being very difficult and the pry and hammer method would have worked on the drivers side.

 

[link]

You can't have a 197/200 without owning a set of those balljoint splitters, they come in well handy