So here it is Sat late Sat afternoon, one UCA is out, and the non-socket attempts to unsrcew the upper ball joints aren't working and NAPA is long closed. So I go to the usual Advance/O'reilly/Otterzone circuit to see what I can gin up for a 1-59/64" 4 wall socket substitute. Advance has a $180 deposit set that I can rent, so I kept looking and at Oreilly's, I run a across a 2-1/4" 4WD spindle socket that fits thr BJ flats amazingly well (their PN W1269). It has 4 small tangs to fit a spindle nut, so I was not sure how it might work, but, for $10, 'what the hey'..I could go back to Advance tomorrow AM..... and I don't care to save these BJ's.
SO, when I get in the garage, I figure I'll be lazy and try it with the impact wrench. Got it in place, held the socket with a rag to keep it stable, hit it with just a few impacts...."Hey did that move?" A few more impacts and for sure it is turning the ball joint out, no problemo. It was a piece of cake, working a short impact burst at a time, re-checking the socket's alignment each time, and the BJ was out in about a minute. The fact that the BJ and UCA had soaked in PB Blaster for an hour + did not hurt.
Next was to try to on the UCA and BJ still in the car. With a whole 1 minute of PB soak time, the result was the same: the BJ started turning out on the first impacts. In a bit over a minute of just short bursts on the impact wrench, it was out. This BJ was a tiny bit crooked coming out; I did not wipe all the grease away first to see if it had been installed crooked the last time. I know tomorrow when I clean the UCA up really good.
I expected the tangs of the tool to dig into the BJ more, but it did not. You can see in the pix below on the 2 BJ's; the marks on the right are from this tool and the ones on the left were from the prior installation. The tangs on the socket flattened just a bit and that made a flat contact patch on the BJ flange.
I like this socket because:
1) it takes a 1/2" drive, not the 3/4" that the standard socket takes and which many people do not have
2) it is tall and so you can hold your hand on it with a rag and keep it stable/seated with an impact wrench
3) it is $10!
This might not work so well with a breaker bar since it IS so tall and could be less stable than the normal very low socket for this app. The tangs could be ground recessed a bit so this would be more stable with a breaker bar.
Good luck if you try it! YMMV..... Sorry the photos aren't sharper.
