upper ball joint spindle stuck to control arm

I’m replacing my front struts on my 2000 Tacoma and I can’t get the upper control arm to pop off of the upper ball joint spindle. I’ve used lots of penetrating oil and hammering the knuckle and upwards on the UCAs and it won’t release on my passenger side. Any ideas or tips?

 

Buy one of these: https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...4LjHWEF3qMZp_OpyCIxoCdT4QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

You'll never have to hammer on anything ever again and it hasn't failed me yet. just used mine to do my ball joints last week.

You can also rent one from your local AutoZone for $20 or whatever it is. I just kept mine after since the guy said I paid for it already.

 

Are you using a mallet/deadblow or a metal hammer? A mini sledge or even a heavy carpenter's hammer should do the trick if your hitting on the flat surface.

 

Did you remove that ring/clip?

 

The ball joint studs are taper fit into the upper control arms. You can use the ball joint puller linked... I generally have had to use some big hammer encouragement to help them separate. With a little pressure on the puller, I usually hit the control arm itself with a few solid blows, and it separates.

The bigger question I have is... why are you removing the ball joint to replace a coilover?

 

I’m putting in bilsteins set to 3 inches and can’t fit them in with the drive attached

 

Buy some replacement CV's now.

 

1st, 5100s don't go to 3". Those are 2.5" max.

2nd, why are you trying to remove the UBJ if you're just doing your shocks?

3rd, your CVs aren't going to like you with that much lift and no other modification (diff drop, high angle CVs)

 

Yes I meant 2.5, the largest lock ring. 2, I couldn’t get the lower control arms low enough to seat the bottom bolt for the shock, and I am installing a diff drop next. The upper ball joint is hitting the coil when there is no weight on it (i finished the driver side) I’m not happy with toytec lifts at the moment as they told me many times I would not have to get and extended parts for long travel builds.

 

You're far from having long travel.

You just need to push down your assembly and the lower bolt then lines up with your LCA

I did the bottle jack method with it on the upper control arm. Some loosen their cam bolts.

 

I tried to do it initially without undoing the swaybar and upper control arms, but what ended up being the issue was I could get it low enough but then the UBA would hit so I couldn’t get the bolt through. Hence I had to undo the UBA, put the bottom bolt on the strut in, then jack the lower control arm to reconnect the UBA with the upper control arm. I have left the jack there to mimic how it will sit with weight, so the upper ball joint doesn’t hit. Once again, praying the shocks settle, I’m worried that if the shocks ever get stretched, it will hit and hurt my shocks. and I will have to put the shocks on a lower lift setting.

 

I think you're going at it backwards, if I'm understanding you correctly. I've done this several times on multiple tacomas and you shouldn't have to remove the UBJ to replace the shock.

Use the bottle jack or loosen the cam bolts (and the UCA bolts) as @Kwikvette said, enough to slide the coilover in. Then install the 3 bolts on the top of the coilover/shock bucket. Then mess around with the bottle jack until you can get the lower bolt aligned and pushing in. Tighten, done.

The shocks for Tacomas are designed to be the limiting factor for down travel. Once installed, that's the limit of the travel. If you go long travel, which you are no where close to doing with this setup, then people start putting limit straps on.

 

Removing the 4 bolts holding the lower ball joint to the spindle is way easier than separating the upper control arm from the spindle.

 

I bought one of those to remove the outer tie rod. The fork part of the tool broke off during the pull, but at least the tie rod came undone.

 

Somewhat unrelated to this topic. But I am using a bearing press form Napa, ECC on Fri p to get my uniball out of my icon UCA.
I have not found a video on how to remove the uniball using the bearing press, rather then the Icon specific "on vehicle replacement kit".
Does anyone have suggestions?
Also the uniball could be seized in the control arm? If someone has recommendations for that please seizure help is appreciated.

 

@TMFF is incredibly knowledgeable with these things. Maybe he can help.

 

im confused here