Ball joint removal?

[srgtlord]

I want to save my brand new balljoints as I pull out my axle to regrease it again. Is there a special tool to use?

[fatmobile]

Not sure what car you have but,
 I don't remove the ball joint.
 I remove the pinch bolt,
 then use a long rod against a ball joint bolt (just happens to be where it likes to sit)
and a hammer to drive the control arm downward.

[burn_your_money]

I prefer to undo the bottom 3 bolts on the ball joint.

[Baron VonZeppelin]

Mk1 - Mk2 just have a pinch bolt on the upper section of the ball joint where it goes into spindle. Like Fatmobile mentions.

You have to completely remove the bolt - because it rides through on the groove of the ball joint stub.

The control arm will usually come down away from the spindle by hand force, especially since you have new stuff that hasn't aged with corrosion. Grease the stub and retorque the bolt on assembly.

And new ones bolt-in versus stock ones with rivets. So you could also undo the bottom 3 bolts like BYM suggests. Neither method will effect wheel alignment.

Would also be a good time to install Prothane control arm bushings.

[bajacalal]

You don't actually have to drop the control arm to change the axle.

A combination of turning the wheel to full lock and raising the engine with a jack just a tiny amount has always given me enough clearance to remove and replace the axle.

[Smokey Eddy]

I have to do this on the side of the road today. The CV has come out of the transmission enough to not engage as a result of being towed. Not entirely sure how this happened but this happened once before when i jacked the car up. With the wheel full lock does any weight have to come off the wheel?

[Baron VonZeppelin]

WoW

I'd say you need to have that wheel jacked up and free floating - so you can rotate it to get the splines to mate back up on the tranny end.

If this is a mk2 on the passenger side axle - it is "possible" it has the 1 inch shorter Mk1 axle shaft installed. The driver side is same length on both mk1/mk2.

[Smokey Eddy]

it's driver side. They are pretty new shafts from EMPI.
Thanks for the response.
I'll jack it up, turn it ful lock and try to man handle it back into the tranny. I saw my friend do this before as i mentioned it has happened once before when the car was jacked up to change tires/brakes what ever it was.
He didn't undo anything. he just managed to get it back into the tranny somehow by turning the wheel. he's quite a bit stronger than i am though... i hope i can do it.

[Vincent Waldon]

The drive flanges are held into the tranny with a circlip... sounds like one let loose on ya if the entire flange is coming out of the transmission?

Here's a pic of the little rotter... courtesy Broke:



I've seen 'em pop before... unless you've got a strong flange puller and the right snapring pliers they can be tricky to install perfectly.

[745 turbogreasel]

Often I undo the pinch bolt, and vice grip a pry bar(or other straight object) to the control arm to use as a handle.

[Smokey Eddy]

Excellent info. I wish i could see that photobucket picture here at work.

[fatmobile]

Naww, the flange probably didn't come off the trany did it?

There is a C-clip holding the inside CV to the shaft too.
It can be a pain to get all the way on, I sometimes file/sand down the cupped washer on the other side of the CV so it will sit down far enough to seat the C-clip in it's slot.