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I’ve read the existing stuck ball joint threads (here and elsewhere), watched Eric’s videos, and I’m afraid my ball joint isn’t responding to the common approachs.
Some background: I didn’t really appreciate the value of undercarriage/suspension rinsing until recently, and I’ve always been a handwasher (and not an especially frequent one), so my car hasn’t seen much automated underbody washing either. Worse, I live in Virginia, with humid summers and salty winters. As a result, my 2002 RSX-S undercarriage and suspension is rusty. It doesn’t actually look, sound, or feel bad, but the fasteners and whatnot tend to be stuck, and it’s an unusually difficult car to do suspension work on. I know this from my own experience, and from a couple conversations I’ve had on the (rare) occasions I’ve had it worked on by a professional. The point being, my ball joint really is stuck, and this isn’t a noob thread because I can’t google.
I have a bad right outer CV joint, which I am endeavoring to replace. Everything has gone smoothy until the ball joint. I tried the hammer and prybar method first, and banging away for quite a few minutes with a ball peen hammer did nothing. Penetrating oil hasn’t helped so far. Interestingly, the Honda service manual for the car says not to use a hammer, but to use only a special tool, which just so happens to look functionally identical to one sold by Harbor Freight. I figured, maybe Honda has some idea what they’re talking about, and I should have been using that tool to begin with.
So, I bought one of the HF ball joint separators. I thought for sure it would do the trick when I saw it, because the thing is seriously heavy-duty forged steel. No luck, however.
The first thing it did was mangle the pint/bolt, crushing the hole for the (fancy Honda reusable) cotter pin flat and thus destroying the bottom of the the pin. Oh well, I figured, the ball joint is only like $18, and I still have to separate it from the LCA to complete the current job, or to replace the now-mangled ball joint.
However, the top face of the LCA doesn’t sit square to the ball joint pin, so as the tool is torqued down, the assembly begins to twist, and the arms no longer swing in the same plane. As a result, beyond a certain point the driving bolt slipped off the driven arm, and the whole tool jammed up, stuck to the ball joint. My impact gun managed to remove the bolt and thus the tool, but not without cross-threading the bolt. So I am out a ball joint tool, at least until I can get a replacement from HF.
As I see it, I have three options, plus whatever else the forum might come up with:
1. A pickle fork.
2. Buy an engineer’s hammer, and see if that works better than my smaller ball peen. Maybe try adding in the pry bar and a second hammer if I can get a helper.
3. Buy an air cut-off tool and try to cut the pin without mangling the knuckle or LCA. This of course still leave the pin body stuck in the LCA – another problem to solve.
I’m sure that, between these three options, I could make some sort of progress. But money is really tight (I need to get this car back on the road), so I can’t afford to pursue all three if one of them is my best shot, or if anybody has any brilliant ideas I haven’t tried. What are your thoughts?
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Alright. All I have is a propane torch, though. I hope that’s adequate. Should I bother/risk hitting the pin (since it’s already trashed)? Or should I continue to only hit the side of the LCA where the ball joint connects?
Well, I don’t think the hammer is going to cut it. Maybe if I had an acetylene torch, or a lift, or enough money to buy these things (or pay someone else to do it)…
I’ve managed to bang on this thing with the 4 lb. engineer’s hammer enough to begin deforming the metal on the control arm (yay!). Heck, the ball joint itself is now loose in the knuckle – and freely sliding up and down, absorbing my hammer blows I imagine – so at least I guess I won’t need to buy a press to get it out.
But the ball joint won’t separate from the LCA.
It’s getting to the point where I seriously think cutting the think off and replacing the entire LCA is a better option than “bang on it with a hammer”. Cheaper than an acetylene torch, too (though I’d like to own one of those).
Come on, guys. Nobody has any good suggestions?
If you have the MAPP gas it burns hotter than propane. Might take some time to get it hot, but it should work.
Pickle fork once it is hot.
Maybe borrow a air hammer with pickle fork attachment from the auto parts store?unfortunately when we give advice we don’t always know what tools the DIY person has available to them and what works for us in the shop may not be a viable option for working on vehicles with limited equipment or facility. In this instance it may be necessary to go with a new control arm. If it is rusted so bad that it won’t come apart that may be the best option.
I learned the hard way – don’t waste my money at harbor freight…pony up the extra cheese and buy something that doesn’t make a preacher cuss.
To your problem though: I’ve had stubborn ball joints under my shade tree before – it’s a real pain.
Since it sounds like you’re quite capable and have thoroughly exhausted your other options, torching it would be my last resort, then either replace the whole damn LCA, or have it towed to a shop and pay someone else to deal with it…
Sorry you’re having so much trouble – best of luck to yaSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Just an update for the hive mind.
Since the taper pin was mangled, I used an air cut-off tool on the ball joint and removed the LCA (where the taper pin is on these cars) entirely.
I brought the LCA to my friend’s shop, and we put it in the hydraulic press – even then it was amazingly stubborn. But the pin finally let go, with a report comparable to a .45 going off in an enclosed space. No obvious corrosion or deformation inside the taper… go figure. (The mechanic friend, who was quite skeptical before I brought it to him, agreed after that it was the most stubborn taper he’d ever seen.) Most importantly, the LCA is intact and was put back on the car!
Shop press FTW.
glad you got it out…. you sometimes can freeze it my taking the whole sytem and putting it in your freezer over night… and heating the opening with a torch… never heat the ball joint you want to heat the outside of the hole not the ball joint itself… heat cuases it to expand and will loosen… so with the frosen part and the torch… you will make it easyer to take out… really it help a lot what you do to remove pristions from there arm… just remember not to heat the part up becuase if you heat the ball joint up it will press out and get stiffer and harder to get out… heat the serounding area…
or you can use soak in liqid nitrogin or dry ice might help… nut liqid nitrogen would be hard to get by most ppl
if you do it correctly you will be like 1/10 the force to do it… like a real big diffrence but a big pain to do it… Just a tipFWIW, I’ve gotten really frozen stuff like that apart with a zip gun and a punch tip – even when torching and big hammers didn’t work. In my experience, penetrating oils are worthless and you can almost never swing a hammer hard enough, with enough accuracy or repeatedly where needed to do as well. I like the idea of freezing the part and then heating the outer section. Never tried that, but it would either have to be off the car or you’d need a lot of that freeze chemical. Anyway, I’m big on zip guns. Get a good one and lots of ear/eye/face/hand protection.
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