L322 lower ball joint removal?

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youmitegetian

Active Member
Posts
822
Location
evesham
hi all
any tips on removing the lower ball joint fron the hub on the front of the rangie?
ive split the ball joint from the arm but cant get it out of the hub.
i see its a tappered fit bit cant believe how seized in it is.
 
Such fond memories of those and yes they are in there chuffing tight.
I have seen oxy acetylene used but a bit hot for my liking but I did use a plumbers gas torch.
I also considered chopping off the two bolt hole lugs and then putting a socket or spacer over the ball joint and pulling it out with the nut and a washer but may have just pulled the ball joint out.
From memory, in the end I heated as much as I could and hit it with a club hammer without deforming it so it wouldn't go through the hole and I used a cold chisel under each lug and hammered that to lever the joint apart.
I may have started the gap under the lug with a dremel wheel but care needs to be taken to not damage the hub.
It was heat, hammer, chisel , repeat

I have seen it done quickly with oxy kit but didn't want to put too much heat into the hub and wheel bearing.
I think I may have some fots somewhere
Clean up the taper really well and grease with copper slip before reinstalling the new one.
It does feel like it will never move
When hammering the back of it I hammered it slightly towards the centre each side so it gradually folded inwards slightly rather than bulged out
 
Such fond memories of those and yes they are in there chuffing tight.
I have seen oxy acetylene used but a bit hot for my liking but I did use a plumbers gas torch.
I also considered chopping off the two bolt hole lugs and then putting a socket or spacer over the ball joint and pulling it out with the nut and a washer but may have just pulled the ball joint out.
From memory, in the end I heated as much as I could and hit it with a club hammer without deforming it so it wouldn't go through the hole and I used a cold chisel under each lug and hammered that to lever the joint apart.
I may have started the gap under the lug with a dremel wheel but care needs to be taken to not damage the hub.
It was heat, hammer, chisel , repeat

I have seen it done quickly with oxy kit but didn't want to put too much heat into the hub and wheel bearing.
I think I may have some fots somewhere
Clean up the taper really well and grease with copper slip before reinstalling the new one.
It does feel like it will never move
When hammering the back of it I hammered it slightly towards the centre each side so it gradually folded inwards slightly rather than bulged out
Show us your fots.:D:D
 
I will try and preserve your modesty, I'll use some of those readers wives eye black out strips, I'm away for a bit so I'll look through the archives when I'm back ;)
 
had a garage do mine a few months back, they couldn't shift them as they has seized in, they ended up having to pull the whole hub off to get at them luckily (or not) i had a hub to replace so ended up getting them to do that at the same time
 
You could do with ball joint fork. It wedges between the hub and axle then belt it. I will destroy the ball joint rubber, no problem if your renewing them and do the axle seals as well. Make a note of the lower ball joint as there is a coller that adjusts the hub height in relation to the axle. Wrong height equals seal wear. Plenty of wd40 to loosen things a bit. good luck.
 
not sure that's the same ball joint i am thinking of.
This is the fecker I did battle with, the first side was a real **** but the second side got owned :)
IMG_3919.JPG IMG_3921.JPG IMG_3922.JPG IMG_3923.JPG IMG_3924.JPG
 
Bigger hammer! And a lot of stamina will shift that ducker.
Yep, i used the ball joint splitter for the others, can beat the good old tuning fork, tried a few other types but ended up belting them which didnt matter as i was changing them all anyway ..
 
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