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Re: Upper ball joint R&R Posted by StoicBlue87 [Email] (#1829) [Profile/Gallery] (more from StoicBlue87) on Sun, 19 Mar 2017 17:50:39 In Reply to: Upper ball joint R&R, Saabboy, Sun, 19 Mar 2017 15:11:02 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
I've used a fork once for balljoint removal way back when I was in college with my first 99. Having worked on many 900s since, I've been using a better way.
Get the spacers into position beneath the upper A-arm and then jack the front of the car up (and check that the spacers are still correctly positioned once the car is on jackstands).
Move the brake caliper out of the way (I use coat-hanger wire looped through the big spring to simply hang it to the side).
Loosen the inner-CV boot and maybe even pry it partly off of the driver cup so you're clear that it will pull free in a minute or two.
Next, loosen the tie-rod-end nut (leaving it on by just a few threads) and carefully whack the spindle knuckle with a big ball-peen hammer in a trajectory between the tie-rod and the hub center. The tie-rod end should bounce and rattle once you've sufficiently vibrated it loose. Remove the nut, detach the tie-rod.
And then simply...remove the ball-joint bolts from the upper and lower A-arms and cleanly and clearly jerk/yank/glide the axle assemble out of the wheel well. You may need to use a big screwdriver as a rough wedge/prybar to coax the balljoints out of the A-arm. You may not need this prybar effect.
Now you can hoist the big hub assembly onto a workbench or somewhere convenient nearby the car.
Loosen the ball-joint spindle nuts to about 90% removal (just a few threads remaining on the nut) and then with your big hammer, carefully whack the big steel knuckle on the hub where the spindle is buried. Two or three whacks is enough to make the balljoint vibrate and bounce out of its seating. Remove the spindle nut and there you go...one cleanly removed balljoint.
One benefit of this method is you won't wreck/destroy the boot of the balljoint if you need to re-use them. In this case you're certain to replace a bad joint but someday you may need to strip the hub down for some reason and why destroy good balljoints with the fork if you don't need to?
Best of luck.
->Posting last edited on Sun, 19 Mar 2017 18:39:38.
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