ball joint bolt stuck

I found mogolf's technique on my second ball joint removal attempt brilliant, whereby the nut is unscrewed to force ball joint out of knuckle. However, my first attempt was being cautious of the beautiful oem cv joint, which lead to the following....






Is there any salvation for me? I have a hub puller and ball joint separator but I really don't fancy disturbing the axle. Is there a tool that can force the tapered bolt down?

Get yourself a big hammer and go to town on that. Should pop out. Good luck.

C-clamp and a socket...

RoseBud68 said:

Get yourself a big hammer and go to town on that. Should pop out. Good luck.

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How do you swing a hammer between the axle and the busted stud?

A good hard smack with a 2 pound hammer on the curved part of the knuckle will shock the stud and it will fall out. You don't hit the stud, just the knuckle where the stud goes through.

Suspect you realize that the ball joint separator was made to do just what you need...did the stud break? Did mine last weekend and popped them with an oversized screw driver.

Sometimes it's just a fight though...btdt on a few occasions.

Al

Two hammers, rapping at the same time on opposite sides of the knuckle, often does the trick.

Thanks all! The ball joint separator I got has a c clamp that is far too large to fit under the cv joint. I looked for a smaller c clamp but I’ll continue searching. An exhaust bracket c clamp couldn’t quite do it. I’ve been swinging a carpenter and ball peen hammer into the knuckle, i’ll Try a bigger hammer and the two hammer approach. The whole area is pretty hammered looking.

I always slide the CV joint out of the carrier anyway... or usually... just to make it easier. Blunt end on the air chisel on the side of the casting will pop the ball stud right out though.

Sounds like a ball joint press...someone gave you the wrong tool. The press is for changing ball joints that are pressed into the (usually) lower control arm. Might also be able to be used to change control arm bushings.(I used a 6" vise)

It won't help you this time, but knowledge is always useful...this is what I was referring to...



Al

Gippeto said:

Sounds like a ball joint press...someone gave you the wrong tool. The press is for changing ball joints that are pressed into the (usually) lower control arm. Might also be able to be used to change control arm bushings.(I used a 6" vise)
It won't help you this time, but knowledge is always useful...this is what I was referring to...

Al

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Pickle fork!

At this point, I personally thing you need to face the fact that you need to remove the CV joint from the knuckle to get the room you need to solve your problem. Just get on with it and you'll save yourself time in the end.


Cheers,


PH

You are correct I need to remove the cv joint. However the control arm is removed and car in air, and I only have 1/2” breaker. This setup causes everything to flop and turn, so I ordered an impact gun and will rent a bigger compressor tank for the nut blasting. I doubt my pancake tank is up to it, nor my elbow...ouch!

Maybe not.

Have you tried what has been suggested several times, tapping on both sides with two hammers at the same time?

Doesn't even have to be really hard taps but you need to hit at the exactly the same time. You'll feel it when you do it right. The hammers will rebound differently than when you're a little off. Be patient, might take quite a few whacks. Harder is better but timing is more important.

It's never failed for me but I have to admit I don't live in the salt belt.

I hit it with two hammers, but not in harmony. I did try at the same time but I might have been lying on a rock with mosquitoes buzzing while trying to hit it hard. I dinged the axle boot with the 3 pound hammer, and the knuckle is all mangled. I’m experimenting with silicon tape over a suspected cv boot gash.

You can get the axle nut off with the car in the air without air tools. My impact usually will not loosen the axle nut anyways. Have someone step on the brakes while you use a pipe attached to your breaker bar. The nut comes right off when I do it this way.

I thought about this but my wife doesn’t want to get in with it like that. It’s something to try (somehow) when the impact doesn’t work. It should arrive tomorrow with 600 ft/lbs in reverse. Thanks for the idea!

Fahrvegnugen said:

I hit it with two hammers, but not in harmony.

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"In harmony" is the key. Vibrations do the work, without putting any stress on the knuckle etc.

Let me know if the impact works. I might need to upgrade my impact wrench. (mine is a pretty serious impact wrench though) Another thing that I have done is cut a piece of wood to fit in between the seat and the brake pedal. The only problem with that is it doesn't press as hard as a human.

the axle nut blew off like someone forgot to tighten it !

Beefy impact well oiled and compressor took off the axle nut and the car didn’t tip over. I don’t know where to begin after all that!

Well it’s been fun, but a mix of all your advice and a swift harmonious tap on the knuckle with irnär the blästür has resulted in freeing the stuck ball joint bolt...
Thank you!

Well the is a wired looking Ball joint. But glad you got it out.

I wonder what part you took out! The 2001 is an A4 and the ball joint is the ball mounted to a plate with 3 holes that attach it to the lower control arm. What was the other end of the part you took out attached to?

I fink he's showing the stack up of stuff he used to push out the tapered piece in the middle???

Lol! There is a 6” c clamp, but it’s too big to see the ball joint bolt without the close up, so I chose the photo where nothing is discernable. I used an old sway bar link on top of the nub of a bolt, and a socket underneath to catch it on the way out. I massacred the ball joint bolt to what is shown in the photo because I’d had enough studying and wanted to get it out. I cut it on both sides of the knuckle which is a poor idea! I got my lca assemblies, sway bar bushings, tie rods with boots and sway bar links installed today and went for an alignment. The dealer got me in on 20 minutes notice for $100 but they still didn’t clamp the tie rod boots down when they were done. I went for a drive and there are no squeaks, but proper bolt torque while laying on the ground eludes me. My torque wrenches are too long and wide. I tightened 11 ft/lbs on sway bar link bolts and they weren’t even tight, so I just snugged everything until it stopped spinning. I figured early failure is better than falling off.

Next time, simply hit the round part of the knuckle where the ball joint goes in with a BFH. This shocks the metal, and causes it to deform and the ball joint stud will simply fall out. No need for press's, c clamps, 2 or more hammers etc. This works for tie rods and anything with a taper fit.

The point of two hammers is no force or shock is transmitted to the rest of the parts. Nor do all those parts absorb the hit so you don't have to beat on it so hard with a BFH. Don't even need a BFH.

Turbovan+tdi, I had this car shipped from Washington. I suspect that hammering the knuckle would work much better there, but after one year here i have brand new zinc coated bolts for my skid plate covered in rust. I appreciate your approach and suggestion, much preferred to c clamps and axle removal. Hammering gently with two similarly sized hammers might be even better to avoid hammering the cv boot and flattening the round shape of the knuckle.

I've found an air hammer works good for removing stubborn ball joints,TRE's,pitman arms etc. If you can fit it in there.

Tried the 2 hammer approach the yesterday, works pretty good but I found you need more force, learned something new.

REMEMBER, when hitting 2 hammers, wear eye protection!!!!!!!!!!!!!!