Ball Joint Emergency
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Joined: Aug 2005
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RE: Ball Joint Emergency
Sorry to hear about the problems.
Glad to see you are making some progress.
The silver colored (for steel or cast iron)
or copper colored (for stainless steel or aluminum)
paste in a can called 'NeverSieze' is useful when going back together
as is carefully using 200 grit sandpaper or 'emory cloth' to remove burrs
before pressing.
Another trick is to put the ball joints in a freezer to get them down to about -10 degrees F and use an electric heat gun or hair dryer to warm up the A arm hole to about 300 degrees F prior to pressing. Very cold inner parts and very warm outer parts will go together easier.
Like your experience
at least one of my presses on my 2wd ball joints went hard enough that I backed off,
cleaned the threads on the press bar,
and applied a little NeverSieze on those threads
to apply maximum pressure without galling the threads on the Advance Auto kit
as I tackled the job a second time.
Glad to see you are making some progress.
The silver colored (for steel or cast iron)
or copper colored (for stainless steel or aluminum)
paste in a can called 'NeverSieze' is useful when going back together
as is carefully using 200 grit sandpaper or 'emory cloth' to remove burrs
before pressing.
Another trick is to put the ball joints in a freezer to get them down to about -10 degrees F and use an electric heat gun or hair dryer to warm up the A arm hole to about 300 degrees F prior to pressing. Very cold inner parts and very warm outer parts will go together easier.
Like your experience
at least one of my presses on my 2wd ball joints went hard enough that I backed off,
cleaned the threads on the press bar,
and applied a little NeverSieze on those threads
to apply maximum pressure without galling the threads on the Advance Auto kit
as I tackled the job a second time.
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All Star
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 948
Likes: 0
From:
RE: Ball Joint Emergency
ORIGINAL: HankL
Sorry to hear about the problems.
Glad to see you are making some progress.
The silver colored (for steel or cast iron)
or copper colored (for stainless steel or aluminum)
paste in a can called 'NeverSieze' is useful when going back together
as is carefully using 200 grit sandpaper or 'emory cloth' to remove burrs
before pressing.
Another trick is to put the ball joints in a freezer to get them down to about -10 degrees F and use an electric heat gun or hair dryer to warm up the A arm hole to about 300 degrees F prior to pressing. Very cold inner parts and very warm outer parts will go together easier.
Like your experience
at least one of my presses on my 2wd ball joints went hard enough that I backed off,
cleaned the threads on the press bar,
and applied a little NeverSieze on those threads
to apply maximum pressure without galling the threads on the Advance Auto kit
as I tackled the job a second time.
Sorry to hear about the problems.
Glad to see you are making some progress.
The silver colored (for steel or cast iron)
or copper colored (for stainless steel or aluminum)
paste in a can called 'NeverSieze' is useful when going back together
as is carefully using 200 grit sandpaper or 'emory cloth' to remove burrs
before pressing.
Another trick is to put the ball joints in a freezer to get them down to about -10 degrees F and use an electric heat gun or hair dryer to warm up the A arm hole to about 300 degrees F prior to pressing. Very cold inner parts and very warm outer parts will go together easier.
Like your experience
at least one of my presses on my 2wd ball joints went hard enough that I backed off,
cleaned the threads on the press bar,
and applied a little NeverSieze on those threads
to apply maximum pressure without galling the threads on the Advance Auto kit
as I tackled the job a second time.
on hold for another ball joint fork, jack stand and sledge, or "BFH" to finnish.
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All Star
Joined: Oct 2007
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RE: Ball Joint Emergency
Got a brand new fork and hammer; top passenger side B.j. still doesn't budge. What kind of torch/saw/etc works to cut through the stem of a ball joint? Looks like I have no other choice but to cut it off, but I have no tool remotely capable of that.
It was kind of funny, I was hitting the top where the fork goes in (which doesn't have any bite because i've seperated it so much), and I was slamming it so hard, that the other side I did yesterday, which I tightened up to snug, fell out. The bottom BH, the knuckle, the tie rod all of that just went plop, right on the ground. Made me feel macho man'ish, lol.
It was kind of funny, I was hitting the top where the fork goes in (which doesn't have any bite because i've seperated it so much), and I was slamming it so hard, that the other side I did yesterday, which I tightened up to snug, fell out. The bottom BH, the knuckle, the tie rod all of that just went plop, right on the ground. Made me feel macho man'ish, lol.
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All Star
Joined: Oct 2007
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RE: Ball Joint Emergency
Popped out the lower joint after my dad sawed off the upper ball joint's leg. Upper joint is still in there due to one of the rings getting stuckaround the top of the BJ and i mean STUCK. have to build around the ring now as it has temporaily become part of the BJ. 3 Joints out, 1 to go. Tomorrow I hope to pop 2 in and pop out the last one, the following day popping in the last two, thursday setting everything back up to lower on the jack for friday morning, then an alignment friday afternoon. let's see if that works.
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All Star
Joined: Oct 2007
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RE: Ball Joint Emergency
Alright, well I pressed in all the Joints now. Here are some pics of the new ones (I cranked on the bottom as hard as I could, but it seems fine to me to let the pressure from the drop on the jack to press them in further);
Here's a pic of the broken joint that we had to cut through, and is still stuck in the ring and the knuckle;
Took some more, but most were out of focus as I took them about an hour ago and the sun has long since set.
Here's a pic of the broken joint that we had to cut through, and is still stuck in the ring and the knuckle;
Took some more, but most were out of focus as I took them about an hour ago and the sun has long since set.
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All Star
Joined: Oct 2007
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RE: Ball Joint Emergency
Haha, yeah the temp. is great. went running tonight it was about 72 F degrees. kinda cold for Florida, but I'm sure that's toasty for others. It was really great to finally get those joints in.
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All Star
Joined: Oct 2007
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RE: Ball Joint Emergency
Yeah, no kiddin on that one. But hey, better late than never lol. I've been turnin over the truck to make sure it's still purrin. Man I want to get that 360 on the highway again.