Thread: D2 Ball joint replacement

Gday I have renewed the main steering ball joints. As you may be aware, this is potentially a difficult job. I made a removal and fitting puller my self.
from locally sourced "bits n pieces" total cost for the puller came to $100.00
If anyone is interested, I'll download some photos of the tool in action and describe what you need to purchase. You can do the job with the diff located, but I took it out of the vehicle as I was doing painting and clean up etc.

Hi, The ball joints are very tight in the casting. Dont attempt to knock them out with a pin punch or hacksaw reliefs in the sides etc. it isnt worth what becomes extreme effort.
I went to one steel and purchased two 2" blinds. ie a blank flange with four 19mm holes in it. Then to the local fastenings supplier "total fasteners" and purchased two 1m lengths of M18 high tensile black threaded bar. $
Also, 8 high tensile M18 nuts and 8 M18 equivalent high tensile washers.
Then I went to the local exhaust pipe shop and purchased three 300mm lengths of pipe for ten dollars! The pipe diam is generally in inches, but your focus is the internal diameter, They expanded one end to suit the outside diameter of the large balljoint, and you will,need a piece to suite the smaller ball joint. All done for ten dollars.
Source any bits of bar or large sockets, that you can use as spacers.
I have a power cut off saw, for steel, which can make accurate cuts, you need accurate parallel cuts to do this entire job. You need to cut small lengths of pipe to act as the spacers between the ball joint and the flange faces. I only used two lengths of rod for the puller, but, you can drill the flanges (19mm) if you prefer 3 lengths. In this case it isnt a perfect 120* layout, so measure the distance across the casting and drill your blanks accordingly.
Apologies for the description, once I work out how to post the images, all will be revealed.
Eventually you will have a sandwich of two pieces of exhaust pipe, one piece on the cast flange of the diff, just over the outside diameter of the ball joint and one piece acting on the ball joint, each piece of pipe will be against a flange blank. The threaded rod is passed between the flange blanks via two holes, place nuts on each side , tighten the whole thing up carefully, then begin to really apply some tension, I mean FN tight, when you find it very tight, use a small lpg torch to excite the casting periphery. ie, apply some heat. not a lot, a small lpg torch wont make the casting plumb red, so dont worry about stressing the casting. get it hot though around the outer periphery, then apply more even tension on your threaded bar. The ball joint will begin to move. If tension becomes hard again, apply more heat,
Dont use heat to excess here, the puller will do all the work.
For assembly, you wont need any heat. I'll post photos soon.