I haven't done this job on the FF myself so I'm trying to figure out what is the problem. Based off your last photo I'm guessing that its the bolt at the bottom of the ball joint that you ultimately want off? Along with the rest off the joint?

If I didn't have a litter of pups to look after I'd offer to pop around. With a decent 6 sided socket I'd be very surprised if my impact wrench couldn't get it off. To put it in perspective I've been working on the 110 today, the split pins for the castellnated nuts on the anti roll bars were locked in place. I thought what the hell (they're M16 so a 24mm socket) and just put the wrench on it. Sheared the pins and spun the seized nut off with no effort.

Anyway onto more helpful suggestions, do you have a grinder and can you simply cut the head of the bolt off. That would mean you can removed the arm? Then gain access to the rest. Or have you managed to get the bolt off? Ed

Blimey that's not a cheaply!!

I've got the bolt off, the problem was that it was a torx female and it rounded straight off, I tried knocking it with a chisel, the lot but couldn't budge it.

Tried again today with a fresh mind and managed to hit some sort of imperial socket over the whole head, and the bolt came out

Problem now is getting the ball joint out the hub, you can't use a ball joint splitter as they're designed to get whatever off the actual ball joint, I need to get the ball joint out.

I've followed a previous posters advice to go for the ear and I've managed to get that bit to come away from the hub, it's the rest that's being a pain and won't budge!! 

Stacker wrote:

This is how far I've got today, had to stop now for work

Not sure where to go from here it doesn't seem to be moving! Air chisel?

You need to get rid of the rest of the bits in you way and hammer that balljoint inward and downwards with a club hammer if you dont have heat it will be a bit harder as you basically have iron oxide forming a glue. You are getting close, that bstard is coming out!
Support the hub underneath with an axle stand so your hammering is not wasted / absorbed.
I reckon it is moving but you are being hindered by the suspension joints taking out some of your energy

This is how it looked before you started so i reckon you are getting somewhere.

On top of what Andy says, also get a thin wide bladed chisel behind the other 'ear' on the inside of the hub. Mine were pretty well seized when I changed them but having spent an hour finding the right technique on the first one, I had the second out in about 5 minutes.

holidaychicken wrote:

Stacker wrote:

This is how far I've got today, had to stop now for work

Not sure where to go from here it doesn't seem to be moving! Air chisel?

You need to get rid of the rest of the bits in you way and hammer that balljoint inward and downwards with a club hammer if you dont have heat it will be a bit harder as you basically have iron oxide forming a glue. You are getting close, that bstard is coming out!
Support the hub underneath with an axle stand so your hammering is not wasted / absorbed.
I reckon it is moving but you are being hindered by the suspension joints taking out some of your energy

This is how it looked before you started so i reckon you are getting somewhere.

Thanks again!

Yeah I guess I can take the other arm off the hub to get a bit more room, I think the other side of the other ear is harder to get to isn't it? You would need the brake disc off to do that and I can't get mine off

It's so hard to hit under there with limited room on my axle stands, I ideally need a better jack and axle stands if I am to undertake any more tasks on the RR!

A mate of mine who used to work for Land Rover then an Indy said the best way to remove it was an air chisel, now I can pick one up from Screwfix for £25 and hopefully borrow a mates compressor, surely to god if I got that in the ear that's opening it would pull the joint through?! 

Mine was a combination of hitting from above and chiselling from below, The key is making the hits count, if it feels hollow when you are hitting it from the top then you are losing the impact needed to shock it out and yes i could mainly get to one of the ears only so hitting from above is going to have to be the way forward.
Going by the amount of corrosion you have then heat may do it but you need to be weary of introducing too much heat to the wheel bearing area as already pointed out but heat will burn off the rust between the the two parts.
When you hammer from above make sure the hub is supported and i hit inwards to stop the part from splaying outwards

This is the type of hammer i used but mine was a wooden handle

http://www.screwfix.com/p/forge-steel-fibr...2-lb/9562c

Sounds like the plan for Sunday!!

I've only got a plumbers blow torch but I guess a bit of that will help?!

I've two hammers, dead blow and a hickory ball pein hammer hopefully they are man enough!

It's a pain to hit down on the top of the ball joint under the drive shaft!! 

can you use a 1/2" socket extension to give you more clearance above the driveshaft for the hammer to hit onto ?? Regards
Mark

2012 Westminster
GONE - 2007 Java Black FF Vogue, with Ivory interior

Does turning the wheel give you more room to get in there ?
I used a plumbers blow torch and release spray but not at the same time although that may solve your problem 😬
You can still get a bit more chisel going on underneath around the sides but again key is getting your hammer blows to count by supporting under the hub.
The benefit of the lump hammer is it is heavy but short but your dead blow might have a go, I hit the top at around a 70 degree angle from the horizontal on the top corner to maximise the force

Stacker wrote:

Sounds like the plan for Sunday!!

I've only got a plumbers blow torch but I guess a bit of that will help?!

I've two hammers, dead blow and a hickory ball pein hammer hopefully they are man enough!

It's a pain to hit down on the top of the ball joint under the drive shaft!!

No it wasn't but I'd had the opportunity to try it out at a garage in Kendal when a wheel bearing went in the 110. The batteries aren't cheap so you're buying into that as well but they're usuable by all their M18 tools. But it's rated up to 1600Nm to undo stuff. I find it hilarious the "low torque" setting is over 100Nm... The two top brands for this kind of stuff seem to be Milwaukee and Snap On buy you pay for what you get.

I concur with all the points above put perhaps another suggestion, remove the small bolt on the hub but leave the big one in. Can you then get a small hacksaw in and remove the left hand ear (furthest from the hub) of the ball joint. With that gone and the big bolt in get a long pry bar / breaker car wedged between the arm and the hub, apply pressure to try to split it whilst smacking the ball joint from above with a lump hammer.

As another aside from that wheel bearing saga the three things I ended up buying pretty much straight after were
1) proper penetrating spray (I chose duck oil)
2) that impact wrench
3) a set of Irwin bolt removers.

Used the bolt removers for the first time in anger yesterday on a rounded off 19mm nut and boy did it come off easy with those.

Shame they don't seem to do any bigger than 19mm, could do with a 24mm one...

Anyway points 1 and 3 are dirt cheap and although you may not use them a lot, when you want them they make the job so much easier. As you saw point 2 isn't quite in the same ballpark but does make life easier (if you can get the damn thing in there because it's so big).

Following on from points here I'd also knock up a set of drive on blocks. I used a couple of old 75x75mm fence posts I had lying around. Cut them up with a chainsaw (happend to have one) and nailed three together in parallel, that extra 3" of clearance makes all the difference when getting underneath. Even if you went new you could buy a couple for £10 from Wickes. Ed

Going to try again tomorrow, I've got a mate who's got a PSV pit bay so can jack it up on there and get a better swing with the hammer plus heat!
Hopefully my air suspension will sort itself out after as well, why does this all happen over Christmas before a holiday  

Pluck up, it could be busier. I had 12 pups born on Christmas Eve. On top of that had to demolish the brickwork under the stairs to give her somewhere to look after them. Also been basically overhauling most bushes and ball joints on the 110 to get it through its MoT. And replaced a section of fence in the garden that was collapsing. On top of that a new boiler will need to be installed in the coming weeks.

Just take out the frustration on whacking the ball joint! Ed

oh jesus that sounds like a hectic one!!

I will be taking much frustration out on it tomorrow, I can assure you!!

An update will follow, more than anything to make anyone who finds this thread through Google aware that they might as well get someone else to do the job  

Good luck, remember to support the hub underneath so you are hitting something solid
happy new year !!