Ball Joint Removal?

[Fifty150hs]

Originally Posted by Sarek

Air hammer .....brrrrrrrrp

[Rosssavage]

Reviving an old (but very useful!) thread.

Currently have both my spindles out lying on the garage floor (01 3.0 140kmiles).

There is NO WAY those ball joints are coming out while the spindle is still on the car!!

Got one ball joint out so far - I needed two days worth of presoak in penetrating oil, heat, and BFH. Beat the absolute hell out of it with the BFH and a punch and it finally went, got the other one to do tomorrow.

I also managed to snap both inner etorx boots on both sides (the drilled through bolt, thankfully not the blind hole one). The corrosion holding the bolts in was stronger than the bolts themselves! Got those to drill out now too.

[Supra]

Originally Posted by Rosssavage

Reviving an old (but very useful!) thread.

Currently have both my spindles out lying on the garage floor (01 3.0 140kmiles).

There is NO WAY those ball joints are coming out while the spindle is still on the car!!

Got one ball joint out so far - I needed two days worth of presoak in penetrating oil, heat, and BFH. Beat the absolute hell out of it with the BFH and a punch and it finally went, got the other one to do tomorrow.

I also managed to snap both inner etorx boots on both sides (the drilled through bolt, thankfully not the blind hole one). The corrosion holding the bolts in was stronger than the bolts themselves! Got those to drill out now too.

Did you manage to do it Ross?

Am struggling with both sides on mine. Tried the hammer and chisel approach and even managed to bend the bolt hole lug/ears on one so thought it waws going to go but didnt. Going to spray well this evenng and have another go at the weekend. Thinking of making a puller as described earlier in the thread using some threaded rod and steel plate, was a bit concerned about stripping the threads but then thought about cutting the ears off and winding a washer and nut up the thread so the force isnt applied to the thread but rather the knuckle. Sadly, I am doing it on axke stands too so a slide hammer isnt going to work as dont have enough height.

[Rosssavage]

Yup, both sides done...but...I had to remove the entire hub carrier/ knuckle / spindle - whatever you want to call it to do it.

Placed the knuckle on two blocks of wood either side of the balljoint, and beat the ball joint out with a 4kg lump hammer and drift from above.

There is absolutely no way I could do it with the knuckle still attached to the car - the force I applied was tremendous and percussive..you’ll never pull it out if they’re as stuck as mine were.

If I had to do it again, I’d just bite the bullet and get the knuckle off and onto a bench straight away, and not mess about with it still attached to the car - I think that saves time in the long run.

Good luck!!

[Supra]

Originally Posted by Rosssavage

Yup, both sides done...but...I had to remove the entire hub carrier/ knuckle / spindle - whatever you want to call it to do it.

Placed the knuckle on two blocks of wood either side of the balljoint, and beat the ball joint out with a 4kg lump hammer and drift from above.

There is absolutely no way I could do it with the knuckle still attached to the car - the force I applied was tremendous and percussive..you’ll never pull it out if they’re as stuck as mine were.

If I had to do it again, I’d just bite the bullet and get the knuckle off and onto a bench straight away, and not mess about with it still attached to the car - I think that saves time in the long run.

Good luck!!

Thanks, I may have to bite the bullet and do that then. I have wasted quite a few frustraing hours already. Well done.

[StephenVA]

Rust, water and salted roads make steel and aluminum bind into a one unit mess. Good luck guys.

[StephenVA]

Meanwhile when new the process was real simple, as everything was not frozen in place. BMW Service manual procedures....

Necessary preliminary tasks:
• Remove integral link.
• Support wheel carrier with universal jack.
• Detach shock absorber at pivot arm.

Remove circlamp (1).
Assemble special tool 33 4 191 / 33 4 192 / 33 4 193 and 33 3 010 as illustrated. Slotted side of special tool 33 4 191 must point to the wheel carrier.
Pull out ball joint by twisting the nut on the special tool 33 3 010 .
Installation note:

Install new circlamp (1).

Push in new ball joint (1) until limit position using special tools 33 4 191 / 33 4 192 / 33 4 194 and 33 3 010 .

[Rosssavage]

Except we’re talking about the front balljoints!!

Good pics though - have done my rears too, using hydraulic pullers to get the old one out and standard ball joint tool (like the BMW one shown..) to push the new ones in.

[andrewwynn]

The trick I've seen used (and will likely be using myself soon) is to apply pressure with a long crowbar to pretension the bolt to come out then smack the arm sideways to make it "ring" like a turning fork. The vibration works the beveled post free.

Wouldn't hurt to get some liquid wrench into the joint first.

I remember changing the front thrust bushings and one of the arms just wound not come out. A good workout with the 3# hammer and my persistence paid off but I didnt learn the trick above until later.

[Rosssavage]

Except we’re talking about removing the balljoint from the knuckle, not the control arm from the balljoint.

Ringing works though, and is a time honoured method - usually using two hammers simultaneously either side of the taper to be freed and “ringing” it off.