Help! Ball joints!
Race Director
Joined: Feb 1999
Posts: 19,659
Likes: 34
From: Lenoir City Tennessee
Ci 6, 8 & 10 Veteran
St. Jude Donor '05-'06-'07-'08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15
Re: Help! Ball joints! (Black68Vette)
I drove the pickle fork in as tight as I could get it then I smacked the bolt end of the ball joint for good measure. PB blaster the whole nine yards. Finally got them out. Someone said you gotta get mad at it. Must have worked for me. Cause I was beginng to wonder if I really wanted to do this at all. Now the whole front suspension is laying on the garage floor.
Race Director
Joined: Aug 1999
Posts: 11,117
Likes: 671
From: SE Pennsylvania
St. Jude Donor '03 thru '26
Oldtimer
Re: Help! Ball joints! (Black68Vette)
Are you putting the fork inbetween the knuckle and the boot on the ball joint? and are you allowing the lower control arm to hang? To do so you need to keep the nut on the ball joints pin so that once it breaks loose it is held in place by the nut. And as youhammer on the ball joint aim the fork downward so a lot of the pressure is directed on the ball joint itself. It will brake loose with a slight popping sound, and make sure the floor jack is right underneigth the lower control arm so you don't have the spring pop out. Think positive, it'll come loose.
Team Owner
Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 65,492
Likes: 230
From: Orange Park Florida
Re: Help! Ball joints! (Black68Vette)
You know, the sharks have a dumb looking arrangement,...are you damn sure you got the TOP nut off the lower ball joint, they insert from the bottom....and have a nut on the bottom of the joint itself that holds it to the lower controll arm....so it's the TOP nut that has to be loose....they can be a bitch but a propane torch, and a good wack with an OPEN THROATED ball joint pickle fork will do the job....in fact, I only have ONE pickle fork...one intended for tie rod ends, as I recall, and I opened up the throat to take most ball joint stems diameter...my fork is allmost 3/4 inches thick at the end of the throat...that should pry apart any ball joint I ever seen....on a car anyway...
I only use a 3 lbs hand sledge....
GENE
I only use a 3 lbs hand sledge....
GENE
Pro
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 534
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From: FL
Re: Help! Ball joints! (Black68Vette)
Although actually Noel, I don't see how dropping the control arm first (if I could manage to do it without getting killed by the spring) would help with getting the balljoint shaft out of the knuckle on the spindle
-Noel
