Trouble with 95 accord lower ball joint removal

[clearanceman]

I started my captive rotor replacement and i can’t get the lower ball joint loose. I beat on it with a big hammer until I don’t want to do that anymore, if I beat anymore I’m afraid I’m gong to bend the control arm. It’s not coming lose. Best ball joint puller? Need an answer ASAP.

This?

http://www.amazon.com/OTC-6297-Ball-Joint-Separator/dp/B0015PN010/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352139426&sr=8-1&keywords=honda+ball+joint+puller

Or how about this for a little more?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002SRH7O/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Topic

[clearanceman]

I even tried this and using a hammer, no go

[clearanceman]

I’m getting this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002SRH7O/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

[EricTheCarGuy]

I think those would work but are you hitting the lower control arm or the knuckle? You should be hitting the knuckle where the ball joint passes through. Remember, ‘hit what it goes through’.

[clearanceman]

I thought it was the control arm, it was the same thing you were hitting. Tried the front, tried the back, tried the wrench trick plus the front. Just not happening. The puller kit came tonight, got to love Amazon $97 and change for that whole kit with $3.99 next day shipping. Anyway, I’ll work on it tomorrow and report back if the ball joint puller makes it surrender. Still kills me you went tap tap and pop. I spent a half hour on it, nothing. And I did hear in my head “hit what it goes through,” LOL.

[Daniel]

from my experience if the ball joint is being that stubborn one of those pullers will just bend it. That’s why I bought one of these: http://www.amazon.com/K-Tool-International-KTI71502-Separator-Pickle/dp/B000BHNZRM/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1352247783&sr=8-16&keywords=ball+joint+puller Hopefully your experience is different than mine

[clearanceman]

I almost got one of those, I was afraid of destroying the boot. I hope the ball joint doesn’t bend. This is turning out to be tough.

[clearanceman]

Well, I got the first one off, lucky I got that front end kit for $50 something more than just the ball joint puller because the ball joint puller was too small to fit around the joint but one of the pitman arm pullers worked fine. Of course the tie rod end popped with a few hits and the upper ball joint popped with like two hits. I guess I’ll do the other one tomorrow, kids have scouts tonight Sadly the old rotors looked like they had never been turned. But I look at it this way. It would have cost me at least half to have them turned as new ones $120 for new OEM off ebay and now I have these cool new tools that I’ll probably need again anyway.

Beating the rotor assembly off by hand was fun with the 3 pound sledge. I bent the bolts a little. They may have enough left in them for the other side. Hopefully.

[EricTheCarGuy]

You know after I posted my last response I realized that that ball joint goes through the lower control arm like you said, sorry. That said if you had a 3lb sledge why didn’t you use it on the ball joint? I’m sure that would have made short work of it. Keep us posted on the rest of your progress.

[clearanceman]

[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=36987]You know after I posted my last response I realized that that ball joint goes through the lower control arm like you said, sorry. That said if you had a 3lb sledge why didn’t you use it on the ball joint? I’m sure that would have made short work of it. Keep us posted on the rest of your progress.[/quote]

I beat the crap out of it for 15 minutes from the front and the back with the three pound sledge. I used the wrench trick and dropped the jack 5 times and beat the crap out of the control arm with the wrench in there. It never let go. But the pitman arm puller pulled it relatively easily. People tell me you can’t bend that control arm with a three pound hammer. I hope that’s right. I doubt I bet it, I couldn’t get a full power swing with the angle.

Funny that the tie rod let go in 10 seconds and the upper ball joint took two hits with the three pound hammer to get it to pop loose. LOL.

In the future, I’ll probably try a few hits on something then use the pullers if it doesn’t work pretty much right away.

[clearanceman]

Got a spinning lower ball joint on the other side. I knew it was like that because I had a trans seal done one time and they had a heck of a time getting the castle night tight on that ball joint. What was your trick for spinning ball joints again, I think you had a video? This one is really bad, you can actually spin it by hand although it’s not easy to spin by hand. I also mucked up the threads so not I got get a die and clean the threads and then put it together. If I have to get a new ball joint I will but I would have to pay someone to take the old one out and press in the new one since I don’t have a press. The ball joint is tight, it just spins and the threads are questionable. I know from getting both sides out once it’s in it won’t come out.

At least I got the rotor assembly off on that that side and put the new rotor together and it’s ready to go back in the hub. My grade 8.8 bolts are now all bent a little but might work one more time if I ever need them too. I think I’ll do the trans seal while I have easy access to the axle, I’m afraid the trans leaking is more about the shop using the wrong length shaft and less about the seal but I might as well try since I have the seal the knuckle out of the car already.

And it turns out it needs brakes, LOL. Ordered a set from Advance auto with a coupon Thermo quiet, $38 with tax after $20 coupon. Might as well do it now with the new rotors. Driver’s side has a cracked pad, passengers side has one down to the bottom of the indicator.

By the way, my Japanese accord has six point bolts holding the rotor assembly to the bearing instead of 12 point.

[EricTheCarGuy]

I believe these videos will help.

BTW the videos are searchable via the search function at the top of this page.

[Author]

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