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Old 10-16-2003, 06:26 PM   #1
NicGordon
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Default Extracting ball joint from knuckle

How on earth am I supposed to remove the ball joing from the knuckle? Any tips? I removed the bolt that pinches the knuckle around the ball joint, but I can't for the life of me get the ball joint out of the knuckle!
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Old 10-16-2003, 09:23 PM   #2
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Someone?
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Old 10-16-2003, 09:29 PM   #3
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Old 10-16-2003, 09:33 PM   #4
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Ball joint seperator? Hmmm, ok any other ideas?
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Old 10-16-2003, 10:22 PM   #5
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I take it you have the knuckle off the car and are changing out the ball joint? Not sure on Subarus but they're usually pressed in so you have to use a hydraulic press or hammer it out.

If you're trying to separate the knuckle from the lower arm you're better off removing the castle nut and undoing it from there.
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Old 10-17-2003, 12:20 AM   #6
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Knuckle is off the car and seperated from the lower control arm already. Just need to remove the ball joint from the knuckle. There is no way to get at the top of the ball joint (except through a tiny slit in the knuckle). So I either have to pull on the ball joint, or pry it somehow. I just don't have the proper prying tool to do it easily (a ball joint seperator may do the trick). I've gotten the ball joint pulled out about 2mm but it won't go any further. It is loose enough to spin freely in the knuckle, but won't budge any further when I try to pull on it. I was just curious if there was a special "Subaru" procedure or tool to aid in removal.
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Old 10-17-2003, 02:09 PM   #7
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If its off the car, take it to your mechanic or the dealership.
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Old 10-18-2003, 08:48 AM   #8
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Replace the lower control arm - you don't need to torque down the castle nut, but get it snug.

You now have a lever arm to tap on - tap downward on the lower control arm and the ball joint will come out.
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Old 10-20-2003, 12:39 AM   #9
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The pickle fork that Karl suggested above wouldn't work ?
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Old 10-20-2003, 02:01 AM   #10
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I dunno, I haven't tried. Just looking for ideas before I go renting tools.
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Old 10-20-2003, 01:21 PM   #11
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Assuming your car has the same suspension setup as my two older Subies, just pop the knuckle off the balljoint and take a tie-rod fork lever and slide it in between the top of the balljoint and control arm and start pounding them apart. Your car is fairly new, so you shouldn't have to fight 16 years of corrosion and heat settlement like I did on my XT
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Old 10-20-2003, 10:25 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally posted by Charlie
The pickle fork that Karl suggested above wouldn't work ?
The pickle fork is for separating the ball joint from the lower arm. He's trying to remove the ball joint itself from the knuckle.

I would try what Austin suggested, that's a great idea. If you want to get ghetto, you can put vice-grips on the end of the ball joint and hammer on it which is kinda the same principle.
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Old 10-22-2003, 07:52 AM   #13
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I don't know if this applies to Subarus, but on my MR2 the procedure is to use a gear puller and basically force the ball joints out with that. I plan on picking one up soon to do just that, and my WRX may be next, since it seems to be wandering excessively on the highway already, even though it's only got 40,000 miles
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Old 10-23-2003, 01:32 AM   #14
Tim Sanderson
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Here's what I did. YOu need a decent flat screwdiver that starts thin and gets fat after about 1/2 inch. And you need another thin screwdriver. And a hammer.

I am assuming that you have everything exposed.

You want to hammer the larger screwdriver into the slot. If you look at it you'll know. You do need to remove that bolt first. YOu don't need to beat it in there too much, You just want to spread it apart a bit. leave that sucker in there. Now take the smaller screwdriver and slide it in past the bigger one and pop that ball joint out of there. You should be able to wedge it out enough to get the tip of the screwdriver under that lip and with a little effort, out she comes.

These are not concise and perfect directions, but once you start trying it you should be able to get the gyst of what I meant. It took me about 3 hours to figure out how to do it the first time. And I could do it in about 30 seconds now.

Good luck
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Old 10-23-2003, 02:16 AM   #15
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Thanks tim. I did try beating it out with a screw driver from above. I didn't think of wedging a screwdriver in the slit to expand it. I figured it wouldn't expand much.

I did end up getting it removed tonight. The method I used was using two pickle forks. I wedged em on the spindle part of the ball joint and wacked on the forks. And I had to wack the HELL out of it! See illustration:
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File Type: gif balljoint.gif (19.1 KB, 545 views)
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Old 10-23-2003, 04:04 AM   #16
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dude, it's such a bear that when I got mine out, I saved one to remind me how hard it was.
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Old 10-23-2003, 10:08 AM   #17
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This is crazy. The proper tool is available for about $15 and is often available to borrow for free from local auto parts stores. No banging, no damage. Easy, 5 minute job.

For example:

http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/...&storeId=10101

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Old 10-23-2003, 11:35 AM   #18
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I can't figure out how this tool would work on the Subaru knuckles. If you look at em, you'll see what I mean.
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Old 10-23-2003, 11:47 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally posted by NicGordon
I can't figure out how this tool would work on the Subaru knuckles. If you look at em, you'll see what I mean.
Sorry, you are right. I thought you were talking about something else.

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Old 10-28-2003, 03:39 AM   #20
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air hammer it out of the knuckle and press the new one in
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Old 10-28-2003, 10:30 AM   #21
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That tool should work for removing the threaded end of the joint from the control arm.
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Old 10-30-2003, 08:24 PM   #22
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Having just replaced my clutch, which involves removing these lower ball joint "knuckles" from the housing, so the front drive shafts can be removed from the transmission. Here is what I did:
I removed the bolt that holds the ball joint knuckle in place on the housing. I disconnected the sway bar from the housing. After a bunch of fiddling, I pulled out my Nylon and Rubber Mallet, and hammered down on the lower A arm. The lower A arm turns out, has about another 15 degrees it can drop. The knuckle then came right out of the housing. I didn't have to hit the lower A-arm that hard, just a couple of firm whacks. Now I live in So. Calif. so there is no road salt and other non-sense. I didn't have to try and pry open the slot that the bolt closes up or anything else.

If I wanted to remove the ball joint completely, after that (from the lower A-arm), I would then just hammer it out (after removing the castle nut).

A lot of folks appear to have never removed a Subaru lower ball joint. It is not bolted in, nor pressed into the housing (hub). The ball portion fits into a hole that is then compressed when the housing bolt is in place. Most of the tools that everyone has been showing and referring to are for separating the ball joint shaft from say an A-arm.

BTW Getting the knuckle back into the hole was a bit of a trick with just one person. I had to pull the A-arm down fitting the rubber that wanted it to go back up, and then try and level out the knuckle, so that it would slide into the hole without tilting and jambing (very similiar to compressing a brake slave piston back into the caliper.
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Old 10-31-2003, 02:45 AM   #23
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Mine were really rusted in the housing, that's why it was so hard to get em out. I did get em out though. The first one via the method I showed above of brute force. The second, I decided to try the screw driver and it worked.

I took a fat flathead screwdriver. Starting from the bottom of the slit, I hammered it up into the slit, spreading it apart. Then the ball joint came out with a minor bit of tugging. I cleaned the rust buildup from the housing, and the new b-joints slid in like cake. Inserted the bolt and tightened down to torque. Ball joints are securely mounted.

Now the knuckles are back on the car, resting atop the new forged alluminum control arms w/ anti-lift kit. Yum!
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Old 10-31-2003, 02:48 AM   #24
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Now I just need to order the Tarmac struts, STi trailing arms, and STi 6-piece lateral links. Then my suspension upgrades will be complete.
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Old 10-31-2003, 03:23 AM   #25
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suby-you didn't need to removed the axles, there's room to get them off w/o removing the axles.

Jeremy
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