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I've been going at this for 2 days now and it's driving me crazy!!! I tried the ball joint separator, pickle fork, c clamp, hammering it insanely hard and absolutely nothing... Here's the pics from today's ..."progress"
Saw that in harbor freight next to the ball joint separator but I bought the separator. Will buy that next time and update the forums but for now, it's sitting for the weekend
When you get done. Take a look at your LCAB's bolts. It looks like one bolt is backed out.
Serious eagle eye there! Good job!
OP - for your methods not working it is because the joint is free so to speak and all the energy put into striking it is being absorbed by the bushing.
The press would work best in this situation.
That said if when assembled, you can get your Pickle fork in there, it will come apart.
Axle keeps hitting my strut Unable to jack it up higher than this Now my axle is leaking grease which is always great!
I can't jack the rotor up anymore because of the axle hitting the strut, the rotor isn't able to move left or right to clear the strut. It's only moving in and out
Also I don't think I'd be able to disconnect the tie rod bushing without having to replace it because I see some grease on the bushing but no rips on the outside
I said F it and disconnected the tie rod and was able to get clearance and used the tie rod/ pitman puller and it popped right out. Shout-out to MikeFig and Aspect for the tips. Appreciate you guys! Gonna do the other side tomorrow then go get an alignment. Thanks again guys!
Did the other side in about an hour the tie rod/ pitman puller did the trick. Only issue I had was the ball joint shaft was spinning with the nut. What I did was apply pressure on the joint with the jack and everything went smoothly
I said F it and disconnected the tie rod and was able to get clearance and used the tie rod/ pitman puller and it popped right out. Shout-out to MikeFig and Aspect for the tips. Appreciate you guys! Gonna do the other side tomorrow then go get an alignment. Thanks again guys!
I'm glad it worked. Pickle forks should be taken off the shelves... I've destroyed one or two bushings trying to use it to get something apart and the kicker is that it doesn't work.
I spent 5 years in a suspension shop and they work. Are they the best tool for the job? Nope. Will the boot/joint be damaged by the fork? Boot = 100%, joint = 50%.
As I said before, the issue is isolating the energy to where the work needs done otherwise it gets absorbed and components remain stuck.
In this case placing a jack under the outer edge of the A-arm locks it in place so all energy directed at joint removal is delivered vs being absorbed in the bushings.
Lower ball joint will NOT come out... PLEASE HELP
