Quote:
Originally Posted by SD1too
It's good to hear that you were successful John. I have a question. How did you avoid damaging the end of the threaded balljoint shaft with your whacks with the sledge hammer? Please don't say "I put a nut on it" because I found that once the joint is released the nut couldn't be removed due to the shaft rotating! 
Simon |
In short leave the nut on the end then once wacked loose cut the nut off remove and clean the end up as pin thread should be long enough to refit if arm still in serviceable condition.
I tried to put a nut on it but didnt have the right thread pitch to hand nor a m14 die to retap
so did it without and was careful not to mash it up. did have to dress the end of the pin a couple of times when it became damaged and even split due to unsuccessful separator attempts on it ripped it to pieces. In the past i have had that trouble and then just loosened the nut off enough to get a hacksaw blade in to cut pin off as need be as nnot posh enough to own a disc cutter.
The nut that came off was totally threaded and it destroyed the thread coming off, once the nut was off I had to cut a half inch off the thread for the separators to fit so leaving about the same again exposed. The pullers managed to split the end of the threaded pin further but once cleaned up with a file and chisel i made sure to round the edges with the file and flatten the end. I did not want to keep wacking it to form a rivet so eventually found the right tool (a 7lb sledge hammer lol) lined it up and three good laser guided wacks i spent more time setting it up, getting the car high etc than hitting it. The end of the pin was slightly bulged but it slipt through the hole in the sub frame without drama, they would have heard my words on Mars otherwise lol.
I also seem to have troubles with the outer tie rod (prefer to move it up out the way to get to the bush bolts), these always seem to get a mashed up top nut and the Alan key middle always mashes up to leaving them stuck on ironically i never once took a splitter to it. Have found using a jack on the bottom of the tie rod to apply pressure up so the taper is firmly gripped by the hub then a mashed up nut will come off saving the tie rod and just put a new nut on which again is not the standard thread i think its one more size up.