Freelander 1 Small tip if changing front control arm (wishbone)

I hope this might save others time as I encountered it myself last weekend when replacing the front control arms. When I came to split the hub ball joint I found that

a) The nut would not come off as it fouled the CV joint gator as it neared the end of the thread.
b) Even with the nut undone a turn or 2, the thread on the ball joint was too long and my ball joint splitter would not fit into the small gap between top of bolt and CV joint.

My tip and it saved a lot of faffing. I undid the nut so I had a 3-4mm gap and then used the underside of the nut as a guide for my angle grinder fitted with a fine kerf blade. Plenty of sparks, but took no time and I was then able to get my ball joint splitter on top of the joint and split it.

you pop the ball joint, lever bar pushing down on lower wish bone (a chisel etc as a wedge in the steering knuckle helps,then undo nut completely

jamesmartin said:

you pop the ball joint, lever bar pushing down on lower wish bone (a chisel etc as a wedge in the steering knuckle helps,then undo nut completely

Click to expand...

That's the method I use

jamesmartin said:

you pop the ball joint, lever bar pushing down on lower wish bone (a chisel etc as a wedge in the steering knuckle helps,then undo nut completely

Click to expand...

I don't quite understand what you mean, but sounds like an easier method than my approach.

jamesmartin said:

you pop the ball joint, lever bar pushing down on lower wish bone (a chisel etc as a wedge in the steering knuckle helps,then undo nut completely

Click to expand...

I wanted to reuse the wishbone so this is what I did too. If the wishbone is defo scrap then I guess cutting the nut off might make it a bit easier to remove.

flanagaj said:

I don't quite understand what you mean, but sounds like an easier method than my approach.

Click to expand...

ball joint is held by the bolt clamping the socket for the joint if you remove bolt and use a chisel or similar to open up the slot you can then lever wishbone plus joint down,once down a bit nut will unscrew fully and joint fully levered out of steering knuckle

Since the ball joint is held on a taper into the hub, you are permitted to hit the outer taper with a large hammer to pop the joint. A large ball pein is best (use the ball end).