Front Lower Control Arms Removal

[joeace41]

I was trying to remove the ball joints from the knuckle after loosening all related bolts and nuts.

I sprayed a good amount of WD-40 penetrating oil ahead of time. Then I used a ball joint separator on each ball joint. The one I borrowed from Autozone kept sliding off from the bolt and nut as I tightened the bolt. It was not wide enough I believe.

I also used a pickle fork on it with brutal hammering, but no prevail.

Do you guys have any suggestions? Feel free to ask about my removal technique since I might be missing something.

Thank you for reading.

[jjvwg]

Get the ball joint separator from harbor freight, it opens further than the one from autozone. Only down side is you need to open up the mouth on it a bit with a grinder.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine Forum

[joeace41]

Get the ball joint separator from harbor freight, it opens further than the one from autozone. Only down side is you need to open up the mouth on it a bit with a grinder.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine Forum

Yep I got one for HF. No prevail, unfortunately.

I kept turning and turning the bolt, and it started to bore into the jaw handle.

[Cybersombosis]

Big ass hammer if you aren’t going to use them again. If you are, put the nut on the threads and go at it.

[joeace41]

Big ass hammer if you aren’t going to use them again. If you are, put the nut on the threads and go at it.

Yeah I am not gonna use the old arms again. I bought both from and rear lower control arms for this job.

How big should the hammer be? Is there a good way to hit the rear control arm thread and nut since it is very close to the CV axle and underneath the tight wheel well?

[jjvwg]

Give the knuckle a few whacks with a little 3lb mini sledge to help free up the ball joint from cup. It’s pretty amazing how tight of a fit a machined cone shaped surface creates. Other thing you can try if you have an air hammer is tighten up the ball joint separator and then run the air hammer on the part of the tool sitting over the stud. I would advise not whacking the stud with a hammer as that’s a great way to have the machines cup pop out of the knuckle.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine Forum

[joeace41]

Give the knuckle a few whacks with a little 3lb mini sledge to help free up the ball joint from cup. It’s pretty amazing how tight of a fit a machined cone shaped surface creates. Other thing you can try if you have an air hammer is tighten up the ball joint separator and then run the air hammer on the part of the tool sitting over the stud. I would advise not whacking the stud with a hammer as that’s a great way to have the machines cup pop out of the knuckle.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine Forum

I guess air hammer is the last thing I am gonna do on the ball joint. I will buy one and a compressor if everything fails.

Some people said heating the ball joint first then whacked the whole arm. I don't wanna go that route because the steel insert may pop out with the ball joint just like what you say, and it will damage the CV axle rubber boot.

Thanks for your suggestion. I have never thought about air hammering the ball joint separator.

[pablolizarraga]

I hate when this happens! One time it happened, I also broke the stud.
IMG_3322.JPG


Had to hammer the rest out for an hour! When it finally came out, the steel cup came out of knuckle as well. Great!
After freezing the steel cup overnight, I used the ball joint separator to reinstall it to knuckle.
IMG_3323.JPG


I put anti-seize on the replacement arms to prevent the same problem. But when i did the following control arm replacement, the driver side came out easily, the passenger did not. Oh well.

A word of advice, wear eye protector glasses. I kept turning the ball joint separator bolt to remove a seized lower front control arm on my wife’s SQ5 when I saw a spark by the knuckle. The tip of the ball joint separator’s fulcrum snapped of and ricocheted off the knuckle!
IMG_3325.JPG




Sent from my iPhone using Audizine

[BumblebVR6]

Yea, these can be a pain. As others have mentioned, the Harbor Freight ball joint separator is pretty good for the money. I've used mine twice and it started to bend on the last replacement a couple of weeks ago. Good to keep an extra one on hand. I also use my air hammer first to see if that loosens them up. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

[Puddin Tane]

HF is chancy in some categories, including their plain jane air tools, but their "Chief" air tool line is comparable to tool truck merch for half the money or less. If you do go air hammer, I totally recommend their larger "Chief" air hammer. I needed it last summer to deal with the upper control arm pinch bolt (the infamous top-of-steering-knuckle "bitch bolt") which appeared untouched since factory assembly 18 years earlier. The nut was seized and sheared off the bolt down inside the hole. Three days of PB Blaster, some heat, and a 3 lb drill hammer and that bolt just laughed and laughed... Totally seized. Went to HF, brought back Mister Chief, slammed that c**t outta there in a couple minutes. Unbelievable. Then it came through again for driving the ball joints out of the top of the knuckle. The knuckle, both control arms, and the ball joints were undamaged. I did NOT want to replace any of that. Works like magic for shattering big rocks too.

If you're gonna do suspension stuff, you should just bite the bullet and go pneumatic. Makes the work go from drive-you-nuts impossible to completely do-able.