Ball Joint Removal Tricks

[SW86]

Alright so Ive done  a few sets of ball joints on XJ/MJs in the past but this one has got me. I bought an spare hp d30 to build up, well its completely stripped down but the bottom ball joints. Ive tried PB and all sorts of penetrating sprays, putting heat to it, several air compressors and impacts, even a wrench and 5 ft break bar. Nothing worked. It even bent my C press in the process of all that.

So I'm asking. What would you do at this point?.

[jimoshel]

A cutting torch and burn it out.

[SW86]

Funny thing is, we made a joke about having to do that in the beginning. Looks like it could come to that

[jimoshel]

I've had to do it that way a couple times. Main thing is to not cut into the side wall. Take the center out first. Then just keep widening the hole. When your down to a 1/4 or 1/8 of an inch, then try a hammer and chisel. Usually when I get that close a couple taps and it drops out. I think only once I had to burn it out to the wall. When I was a kid I watched my uncle remove one with a drill. I think that was when and where I learned some of the no-no words I use today. :yes:

[mpace6a]

Heat up the knuckle around the joint. They'll come out with no effort at all. Had to do that with one of my lowers about a month ago. DIdnt make sense to me since i figured the metal would expand in all directions, but it just pulls away from the joint and it'll come right out.

[Akula69]

Flame wrench and a BFH works.

[Comanchemodder]

  On 9/17/2013 at 9:37 PM, mpace6a said:

Heat up the knuckle around the joint. They'll come out with no effort at all. Had to do that with one of my lowers about a month ago. DIdnt make sense to me since i figured the metal would expand in all directions, but it just pulls away from the joint and it'll come right out.

I believe the engineering explination is if you apply heat to the outer via torch, the metal expands ( holes get bigger). However, why wouldn't the ball joint expand too? It does, but the thermal resistivity of the contact joint slows the heat transfer enough so the outer expands faster. I think if you held heat to it long enough, you would "loose the race" so to speak. Best to beat on the joint while heating.

 

But that is all theory and I am sure some experience on this board may give more real explination.

[SW86]

What I tried was, I put the ball joint press on, tightened it down so there was pressure on the joint, then proceeded to heat the knuckle. It didn't work. I got that thing red hot too.

[Alexia]

Have you tried the usual deformation tap? Hit the outside of the knuckle with a sledgehammer. This causes the seat taper to deform temporarily and pop the ball joint out.

 

Could also use a ball joint separator and a sledgehammer. http://www.harborfreight.com/11-3-4-quarter-inch-ball-joint-separator-1740.html

[Rockfrog]

I just use my Ball joint press ... get it good and tight, hit knuckle with BFH at outside of BJ hole, tighten Ball Joint press again, BFH, tighten ... pop. Last one was pretty stubborn (OEM from '89), but they eventually popped. Was just about to add heat as well.