Thrust arm ball joint removal?

[Tharsan_5]

Hey guys, new to the forum. I'm trying to remove the ball joint for the thrust arm. I removed the nut and the thrust arm itself. I also removed the two torx screws holding the ball joint. Now I can't remove the ball joint itself from the knuckle. I tried banging it out after spraying WD40. I don't even have space for a press tool. Any advise of these?

Thanks

[garrett.fell]

You seriously have to beat the piss out of it with a hand-held sledge hammer. Not joking. Grab a BFH and go town on it!

I used a floor jack to support the big-end so the detached-arm was more or less horizontal

Now beat the arm senseless straight down and right in the middle of the arm. Hit it hard - don't be shy.

I had a hell of a time with this over the summer. The first arm took me 3 hours and the second took me 5-10 minutes after learning the trick.

I was trying to hit the arm close to the ball joint. The trick is to get the arm horizontal and hit it right in the middle with a lot of force!

Good luck.


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[pnoyako85]

When they say beat the sh*t out of the joint u do it. Lol. Youll need some penetrating oil and heat gun. I had theat heat going on for 20min aiming at the buttom joint( aim on metal not rubber)

Heres a video for you


http://youtu.be/4OG5M1r0Mo0

[upallnight]

I used the tool in the youtube video when I did the thrust arm ball joint in my E34, which is similar to the thrust arm for our X.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBy1EEksUFM

[Kristophe]

You can also trying using a small pipe wrench w/ cheater bar and twist it back and forth to help loosen it.

[Freestyler]

I find it a little comforting that when i go on Xoutpost to figure out how the h€ck to get that tension strut (or thrust arm) ball joint out of the carrier, which i have now been battling for way too many hours, I find the very first post to be called "Thrust arm ball joint removal?"

So i'll just tag along here and go try the advices.
-And of course share the knowledge, if i somehow manage to get that little bugger out before i loose it and torch my entire garage..

[BigBlack48is]

I used a ball joint press to push out the center of the balljoint and then used an air saw to cut out the outer race of the balljoint. took me about 1/2 hour, if you don't include the 4 hours on the first one trying to "press it out"

Hope I helped save you some time!

[Tharsan_5]

thanks for the reply guys. I had the arm removed pretty easy but the ball joint was rusted so bad it looked like one piece. I cut the torx screw flaps off with a grinder givving enough room for the ball joint press to fit on the knuckle. Took forever.

[pnoyako85]

Originally Posted by Tharsan_5

thanks for the reply guys. I had the arm removed pretty easy but the ball joint was rusted so bad it looked like one piece. I cut the torx screw flaps off with a grinder givving enough room for the ball joint press to fit on the knuckle. Took forever.

battle won!!!