Lower ball joint to Hub - Help!
 

I'm in the process of replacing my front shock absorbers and springs due to snapped N/S spring. So far I've managed to remove all of the pinch bolts and droplink nuts. I've also managed to release the lower ball joint from one Hub, to do this I basically used a drift and a lump hammer and bashed it out - took me ages.
I'm now doing the other side (O/S) and have the lower ball joint pin that goes into the hub drifted out to the stage that the groove around the pin (that the bolt locates with) is showing below the hub, but can't get it fully out - I can't help thinking that there must be a technique that I should be using which will get the pin out much quicker than it's taking me.
Can anyone help me with the correct technique to remove the lower ball joint from the hub.

Tommy :-)

I did this yesterday and just used a long thin center punch and it popped right out.

Where did you position the centre punch? Did it need agreat deal of force to get it out?

Tommy

When you remove the nut to expose the end of the bolt......tap/hit the bolt as if you were trying to hit it out....as its not threaded into the bottom part of the hub.
Put the center punch on the end of the bolt and Whack away.
Just make sure the center punch is long enough and thinner than the bolt.

Last time I was working on this area, I had to work up a good sweat with a heavy hammer to get the pinch bolt to move. Make sure you have as much room as possible to swing the hammer, and don't just let the hammer do the work - give it some welly.

Buy a scissor type ball joint separator. Continuous pressure on the taper does a better job than bashing the threaded pin with a hammer. I suspect that does more harm than good to a Morse taper joint. Better to use two hammers simultaneously on the female (outer part) then on the male part. In this case, you might try spreading the pinch using a metal wedge of some kind. If the cut away is showing outside the joint it must be the nip that's holding it.

TC

Am I correct in saying that the lower ball joint to hub bolt is NOT threaded into the hub, which is the reason it has a nut on the back.
The top pinch bolt that is around the bottom of the strut is threaded though.

Yes, that is correct!

so, I would say, you could hit the end of the bottom joint bolt till your screaming like a banshee !! LOL

Thank you for your advice so far. Let me just say that I have removed all pinch bolts from both sides.

It's the lower ball joint that i am trying to separate from the the hub. The lower ball joint to hub is not threaded and my understanding is that it's parallel?

I have separated the 'pinch' part of hub to the extent that the first part of the ball joint 'pin' appears loose in the pinch, it's the part above the 'groove' which I cannot get free from the hub.

Sorry if my terminology is not correct.

Tommy :-)