Anyone know some good tricks to get stuck Lower Ball Joint out?!

Hello fine sirs, been working on my beloved Tacoma all day after a tragedy. The bolts connecting the LBJ to the knuckle broke off, 2 fell out and the other 2 snapped. So I'm replacing the CV Axle, knuckle, and LBJ. She's been sitting for a few months and got the axle out successfully but now the LBJ does not want to budge. Applied lots of torch on it, PB Blaster and a hammer. Leaving the jack and joint pusher on it overnight, hoping to come back in the morning with it apart. Anyone have any good tricks to get them out?

 

I would stick to the torch. heat the ball joint bolt threads, not the lower control arm. It may be seriously lodged if it sustained a failure at speed. don’t over torque those ball joint pullers, they will break.

 

Hit what it goes through, meaning smash the lower control arm with a big heavy hammer, really hard where i've circled in green until it pops out. Since the ball joint is garbage here you could also just hit it vertically on the threads until it releases.

 

Try an impact wrench on the ball joint puller tool you have on it in the photo. That's what I used on mine. It worked great.

 

Hitting the top part upward where the ball section is, I don't wanna mushroom the threads too badly but I might have to hit it there more

 

Yeah man I might have too, it just slides off pretty easy because the bottom of the bolt is pretty messed up.

 

Yeah definitely gonna heat it up more tomorrow. Gonna focus on the threads too, my first thought was if I heat the bolt threads it'll make it expand due to heat and make it harder to come out, but it should heat everything up and soften em up. I'll heat it until it's nice and hot

 

put the floor jack directly under the ball joint stud and lift it by there . beat the LCA while it's under tension from the suspension/weight of the vehicle and it should pop out.

 

Don't hit the LBJ, hit the LCA. The vibration/momentary deformation allows the tapered spindle of the LBJ to work itself free.

Use a heavy hammer (3-4lbs has worked well for me) with a metal face.

 

More heat

 

I had the same problem with TRE's. If you have heat, use it. I didn't, so get a BAH and hammer like you're Thor. Hammer on the LCA from the sides around the outside of the ball joint, over and over . . . it took me hours. Tighten the puller a little, hammer, tighten, hammer, rinse and repeat until it falls out.

Usually if you want to save the part (you don't) you put the nut back on to prevent the threads from mushrooming. That's not the case here. Do whatever gets that sucker out.

Agreed on over torquing the puller, I broke my favorite puller on the TRE's. I'd be reluctant to use an impact on the puller, it could break.

 

Hell yeah i got it! Heated the hell out of it for a few mins, then put the jack under the stud and lifted it up, then took the ball joint tool and a big hammer, gave it a few hits and she popped off!