need help

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CrazyPete

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doing a brake swap on my 76 dart sport and a long story short i cant separate the upper ball joint from the knuckle tried a pickle fork nothing even used an air hammer its on there like steel the nut and cotter pin came off pretty easy any tips?
 
doing a brake swap on my 76 dart sport and a long story short i cant separate the upper ball joint from the knuckle tried a pickle fork nothing even used an air hammer its on there like steel the nut and cotter pin came off pretty easy any tips?

Take the control arm off and spindle and use a press. Have you tried putting the nut back on and whacking the nut/tip with a hammer.
 
use the 2 hammer method-- place one on the collar & use the other to smack the crap out of it. Hit it a few good licks -- then place it on the opposite side & repeat. Then if it hasn't popped -- take a smaller hammer & tap around the collar it will come out ,Lawrence
 
Do you plan on replacing the ball joint? If so, I'd heat the knuckle up nice and hot and whack the stud of the ball joint with a 2-3 pound sledge. But with that said, heat is my go to source for anything metal that's stuck, so long as it doesn't have anything that will burn nearby.
 
Heat as a last resort, I would beat the side of the knuckle right at the taper. It will break free.
 
yep they do tend to get stuck pretty good. I just had to do the same thing and it took a lot of hammering with a 4lb club hammer to get it to separate, I'd use heat as a last resort. Hammer it like it said something bad about your mother LOL, that always works...
 
Heat as a last resort, I would beat the side of the knuckle right at the taper. It will break free.

yep they do tend to get stuck pretty good. I just had to do the same thing and it took a lot of hammering with a 4lb club hammer to get it to separate, I'd use heat as a last resort. Hammer it like it said something bad about your mother LOL, that always works...

Why is heat always a last resort? Does it damage or warp the knuckle? Having used the pickle fork and air chisel, he's probably already damaged the UBJ and will need to replace it. I'm not trying to negate your advice, just want to know for my own knowledge, thanks.
 
I say use heat as a last resort since most people are not used to using torches. Lots of things can go wrong if used improperly LOL, there are plenty rubber parts in the area, and sometimes brake fluids, oil and gas residues can also create interesting surprises :)

Too little heat and nothing happens, too much heat and you're messing with the integrity of the metal. Using heat is a great tool to get stuff apart but you have to know what you're doing, so I always say, IF ALL ELSE FAILS, use heat and a hammer.
 
Everyone does things differently. Here's my method. Jack up the vehicle , supports under frame. Disconnect brake fluid hoses. Split tie rod end. Rotate knuckle as needed to remove cotter pin and nut from upper ball joint. Re install nut to just full of threads. Now the still loaded torsion bar is my helper and the nut will catch the seperation. Rotate the left knuckle to far right. Pickle fork aimed about 30 degrees from paralell with the body. 4 pound short handle shop hammer.
Now unload the torsion bars. Remove the upper arm ecentrics. Tilt the knuckle assembly outward to acess the lower ball joit cotter pin and nut. leave that nut at about full thread too. looselt reinstall the upper arm eccectrics. Floor jack under drum/rotor, reload torsion bars may not be necessary. Now split the lower ball joint. The lower ball joint is always more difficult to split that the upper in my experience. Destroying its boot is a given.
i have taken the lower arm with strut rod and everything else and with a helper hung it upside down in a vise. That puts the weight of knuckle. spindle, upper arm, everything else on my team. Any way you go at it, suspension work aint easy. Just getting the right swing and hit with the shop hammer takes a bit of practice.
 
worked on it again that thing is on there good it didnt budge an inch today looks like it'll be a nice week long project to swap those brakes on i tried putting a chisel on a hyd. jack and jacking it up and beat on it with a 2 lb mini sledge and then tried a 10 lb sledge nothing next im gonna try putting the big jack under there and lifting the car its been alot of years since ive had this much trouble
 
Question.. Are you atempting to seperate the upper ball joiht for the disc brake spindles that are going on the car or the drum brakes that are comming off the car ?
 
Question.. Are you atempting to seperate the upper ball joiht for the disc brake spindles that are going on the car or the drum brakes that are comming off the car ?
yup crappy sbp drums and swapping disk units i make just say the hell with it and cut the spindles off
 
update worked on it for 2 min. today after taking a few weeks off and it popped right off by the grace of god i just left the pickle fork in and was just doing a lil prying and it popped right off
 
If you can fabricate and have access to a welder we have made a number of tools that I'll try and describe. A piece of pipe to go over lower stud and rest on knuckle, other end has a large washer, nut and bolt that will screw out against the upper stud putting pressure on it while you give the knuckle a smack. The welding is for a small piece of pipe on the bolt head to keep it centered on the stud. Drilling a recess in the bolt head could do the same but adding the piece of pipe is safer. These have worked great on our A and B bodies and the truck. Same tool shown in most Chrysler manuals.
 
When using a pickle fork no rubber can be wedged between fork, ball joint and spindle. It will absorb all the energy from the hammer.

For separating upper ball joint from spindle I use a homemade tool consisting of a bolt and threaded rod coupling nut that exerts force on the upper & lower ball joint stud when expanded. FSM had a diagram showing how to make it.

No beating with a hammer, no destroyed rubber dust cups, and no body damage from misplaced hammer swing. It just popes the thing loose.

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