As above, fitting new front ball joints (and suspension arms) on Sunday and guessing they've never been replaced (2003 TD6) and been told they can be a pig to get out. Any pointers to help ease the process please guys?

So far I'm armed with breaker bar, heat gun and lots of 4 letter words, just in case...

good quality ball joint splitter. Had to beat the living Cr@p out of mine with a sledge hammer to get them to release 56 TDV8 Vogue SE
9 Freelanders, 2x 2002 TD4ES, 2001 TD4, 2002 1.8GS, 2000 XEDI, 2x 2000 1.8ES, 2004 1.8 & 2000 1.8 GS (rolled)
91 Lotus Carlton (sold)
90 Lotus Elan (BRG)

don't forget the warm gloves and tea and big hammer  2011 4.4 tdv8 autobiography black
2006 td6 vogue buckingham blue
2000 p38 Holland&Holland gone, best car i ever had
1998 p38 vogue oslo blue gone
1998 50th edition v8 defender gone
1997 200 tdi defender red gone
1995 4.6 defender 90 green gone

Hi let us know how you get on as I need to do mine
Cheers
Springer

Andy_J wrote:

good quality ball joint splitter. Had to beat the living Cr@p out of mine with a sledge hammer to get them to release

Loads of heat on ball joint on hub plus wd40 or similar and large hammer

They ended up staying in place, b@st@rd things. Replaced the arms but left the ball joints as they were still ok, and nigh on impossible to get out.

same results as me!

where and how *exactly* do you hit with the hammer?

after getting the torx bolts out you need to drive the ball joint down but you can't get a straight hit at it because of the CV and even if you could get enough weight on it with a hammer and drift, some how the hub needs to be supported so that all the hammer effort goes into moving the joint out. what do you do to support the hub?


how do you do it precisely?

oh, and replacing both the arms has actually cured all my noises from that corner even though i was trying to do the ball joint as well. however, the forky thing used to split the ball joints has ruined the boot on the ball joint in the process!

sorry for the thread hijack but this was how my attempts to sort the ball joint developed...


the following week i tried to do the ball joint by removing the entire hub to do it on the bench which looked much easier. bought a puller

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hydraulic-Wheel...2749.l2649

and and removed the hub nut but it doesn't quite fit because the wheel locating spigot part of the centre of the hub is too great a diameter to fit in the recess in the tool which means the wheel studs on the hub only protrude by about 3mm through the tool's flange - ooh err.

!

cut the stainless tops off some old RR wheel nuts which leaves a nice m14 x 1.5 stud connector and bought some m14 x 1.5 bolts to get more thread engagemnet but that whole lot means the hydraulic part of the centre of the tool is not long enough.

again!

made a spacer for that and got the whole lot sorted and found that one of the bolts securing the strut to the hub is siezed solid - not even a 4 foot pipe helped

again again!

need to try heat on that bolt i suppose.

someon - please say how to do this with the hub still on the car

interested to see if anyone replies to you Dexion, as i couldnt see how to shift them either. We contemplated heat but was worried about the other ball joint and the CV boot too... Took her for a 10 miles test yesterday and the annoying knock has gone, so very pleased with that

I've been driving around with new arms and a hithertoo good ball joint which now has a knackered boot for 2 weeks now. Since I'm doing this all on the drive I'm losing enthusiasm since the weather has turned and i've still only done part of one corner!

It's getting a major suspension overhaul, front = everything except height sensors and air bags. rear = hub joints upper and lower, drop links and toe links. all new bolts etc everywhere too.

prob going to have to bite the bullet and get the local garage to do it instead of me.

BTW i did buy a used hub from ebay for £30 to practise getting the ball joint out. An impact screwdriver will get the torx things out pretty easily and a hammer and a drift will get the ball joint out. you can just rest the bottom of the hub on a vice etc and hammer away till it moves. of course you need to get the strut bolts out to do that ............

You can just get new rubber dust covers if ball joint is still good

Those strut bolts can be a bit of a pain...

When I changed the bottom ball joint I used a flame resistant blanket ( like they use when plumbing in a sensitive area) to protect the CV boot
I took out the two bolts but left the tie bar loose on the joint this let me loosen the joint by hitting it on its edge ( just like you were try to unscrew it)
the tie bar stopped the hub moving to much when I hit the joint, I did this on both edges and it broke the hold it had in the hub.
Working it back and forth I managed to work a gap between it and the hub which I then got a small chisel into and worked it out by increasing the size of chisel.
Main thing is heat and more heat plus wd40 or any freeing spray.