Ball Joints Replaced

Mean cotter pin on castellated nut

Ball joint separator at work

Bob's 20 ton press vs my 18mm socket. Who will win?

After

Before

Taa Daa!

Today was Lower Ball Joint Day. The hardest part of the removal was trying to get the cotter pin out of the castellated nut on the vertical link. I finally gave up on both wheels and just broke the ends of the pin off and powered through with a big socket. The new ball joints have a nyloc nut instead, so no cotter key required. I used the ball joint separator once everything was unbolted and the wishbone came off easily. Then I cleaned them up a little and took them up to Bob's 20 ton press. We used an 18mm socket to give the press something more stable to push against, but getting enough of a lip around the outside of the wishbone was a real challenge. We eventually used a hacksaw to cut parallel slices off on either side of the old ball joint, and this gave us just enough real estate to get a purchase with the press. To get the new ball joints in, we rigged up a tall section of pipe and hammered them in gently using another socket. This seemed less likely to do damage than the press b/c of the limited lip around the circumference of the ball joint. Getting the wishbones  back in the car was a simple matter. Now maybe the alignment shop will accept my business! Bob scored a nice bottle of scotch for two days of help.