Thread: I cannot get the ball joints out of the swivels

if you have acces get a oxy with a welding tip and heat 1 small area and then wack it, a gas torch heats the whole thing up and wont help
lowering the whole axle onto stands etc rather then on the chocks can help as when you hit it the shock cant travel anywhere if its on the spring and shock the force is considerably less

G'day PhillipA,


I understand your frustration. I too had trouble. A couple of days ago I completed my ball joint replacements.
My L/H side was like this:
Top taper I used approx. 7 Lb sledge hammer on one side of taper then giving a considerable blow with my largest sized ball pein the taper released.

Lower taper was difficult due to A: can't get large sledge directly opposite of blow and B: collet probably doesn't help with release as compared to top. I spent time trying to 'shock' it but failed. I then used my panel beater's porta power spreading wedge, put tension on the joint and then after several attempts with some decent blows it released.

My R/H side top was same as L/H. Luckily the lower released after a few decent blows using same process as the top joint.

I had most of my trouble (spent most of my time) fabricating Special Service Tools and pressing the old/new joints into the axle. Lucky you are only replacing the boots!


***Make sure you release the top joint first as it will 'drop down' a fraction making it easier to release the lower joint (at least in my case).


Good luck!


Jayden

OK , I have the top one undone.YAAY.
The bottom one is still stuck afte rhaving broken a modified Pitman arm tool I bought this morning.

Is the thread of the collet a normal Righty tighty thread?
Would it help to try to move the collet first before trying to break the taper?
I have heated again with a map gas which is teh only one i have, and bought a 4Lb sledgae and 32 Oz engineers hammer.
These move dthe top one but no luck with teh bottom yet.
We are thinking a piece of big pipe over a big shifter to try and move the collet.
Regard sPhilip A

Originally Posted by PhilipA

OK , I have the top one undone.YAAY.
The bottom one is still stuck afte rhaving broken a modified Pitman arm tool I bought this morning.

Is the thread of the collet a normal Righty tighty thread?
Would it help to try to move the collet first before trying to break the taper?
I have heated again with a map gas which is teh only one i have, and bought a 4Lb sledgae and 32 Oz engineers hammer.
These move dthe top one but no luck with teh bottom yet.
We are thinking a piece of big pipe over a big shifter to try and move the collet.
Regard sPhilip A

Haa they can be bastards. You are correct, thread is normal R/H for collet so anti clockwise to undo. However....whilst you can try to undo collet(mine was 32mm socket), I find it very unlikely it will help the situation because: A) taper lock by action would lock collet even tighter and... Collet is a 'split' collet and as result water/dirt/muck gets in and tends to 'freeze' it in there. Ensure that prior to you undoing it, get good wire brush and clean all exposed threads first then spray with WD40 or similar! On installation, apply small coat of lubricant/never sieze to aid installation of collet and to correctly torque up (5Nm or only slight pressure, don't 'lay into it'!


I'd suggest you leave nyloc nut on bottom of thread of ball joint (do up to nyloc part) so if you miss your target with hammer (and at force!) it won't stuff your thread up! Other than 'getting in there' and being forceful, I can't help you much more as I used porta power. Hopefully someone else maybe able to help out.


Good luck! Jayden

Hi Phillip, removal [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yodDswj5qIU#t=1575]Swearing and Skinned Knuckles Episode #3 - YouTube[/ame]
and refitting
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z99NF_x00Q0]Swearing and Skinned Knuckles Episode #4 - YouTube[/ame]
I bought the ball joint puller set from RADUM and all up the whole kit was about $150 delivered .
Regards, Mario

Well I gave up .
I released the top taper, but the bottom one beat me, for the first time ever.
I bought a Pitman arm splitter and modified it to fit the bottom ball joint which entailed grinding and cutting down maybe 40% of the jaws.

I still think it would exert many tonnes of pressure until it broke that is.

I tried a 2 arm bearing press pressing onto a special tool like a pickle fork to gain purchase. At least I didn't break that.
I bought a 4lb sledge and big 32Oz Engineer hammer.

I soaked it for a couple of days with inox.
I had an assistant who is a qualified mechanic who held the sledge as a dolly.He had never seen a taper so tight and described the design as madness.

On his suggestion we tried to move the collet a bit thinking that it may just loosen the bottom taper, so I cut down a 32MM ring spanner then fitted it with a 1.5 metre length of tube. Result snapped spanner.

IMHO the only way to move the taper would be with a pickle fork, and that will most likely destroy the ball joint, and the object of the exercise was to replace the boots only. I would be grateful to hear of anyones experience of a reasonably priced non destructive splitter tool that worked like the LR special tool, and they seemed to have a couple of variations.

So I made up boots by splitting the you beaut boot I bought from the US and then wiring some plastic/vinyl sheet around the ball joint, as I destroyed the existing boot.

So now I will regroup and decide what to do next. I think I will just let it run and keep greasing the ball joints regularly until they show some symptoms of failure then go the whole way of replacing them. In that case I don't have to worry about damaging the joint during disassembly.

Now I know what Joe Carnevale who is a Land Rover specialist in Sydney said to me about what nightmare they were and he wouldn't do them again, and that he had broken his tool on the last one he did.

The removal and fitting of the actual ball joints looks simple compared to the hassle of removing the bottom one.

What a crazy design. I am damned if I know why they just don't have bolt in ball joints like the Jap 4WDs like Jackeroos.

Regards Philip A

What a bastard! I can understand how you feel.... all that time. .. money. ... effort not achieving anything. **** happens I suppose.

Philip

Thread relating to the removal (if you haven't read it)

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/projects-t...ing-how-2.html

Regards
Andrew