Hey guys I was tryin to replace my ball joints and I went to remove the hub (already took out the 3 bolts) and the dust shield is rusted between the knuckle and the hub. I have already sprayed TONS of liquid wrench, smacked it with a hammer and a chisel and also tried using some heat to get it off and none have worked!

I was wondering if there were some other things to try or and tricks to getting it off?

thanks,
Andrew

 

If you've already gotten those 3 bolts out, then i would put them back in but leave about a 1/8" gap between the head and the knuckle. Put a socket on the bolt head and one-by-one beat on it with a hammer. The bolts will push the hub out. Make sure you use a BFH and a socket that you don't care too much about. There's another way also. Put the socket with an extension on one of the bolts and turn the steering wheel until the socket extension bottoms out on the steering stop and then the hub will pop out. I did it the first way i explained as i had the entire axle laying on the floor in my garage...

 

I used an air chisel, if you have access to one.they were a pain even with that but made life easier.

 

those things are unnecessary. cut them off, toss

 

Put a bolt back into the one closest to the front and put a 3 inch extension between the bolt and the knuckle and start the truck and turn the wheel till the hub pops off

 

I was doing mine today and had to chisel the living crap out of it in conjunction with a puller on it, took ALONG time but finally pop off. Oh yeah a boat load of PB blaster.

 

This right here. Also leave that dust shield off when you put it back together. It is not needed.

 

used the bolt trick! screwed the bottom two bolts in a little bit and gave them both a few good wacks and it fell right out

 

Sounds to me like you need a bigger hammer.

 

If this thing keeps it up next time I'm breakin' out the sledge hammer!

 

Ive had to do this along with using a big hammer on the bolts from the backside, not fun. Use lots of anti-seize when reinstalling and next time it will fall part when you remove those 3 bolts.

 

http://www.stu-offroad.com/axle/ball...alljoint-1.htm

 

So, it seems like there is no need to replace the dust shields that I also destroyed while removing the hubs?
I really don't want to put them on if it's not necessary. I've got a 2000 XJ Sport

 

You don't need to put them back on. Throw it right in the scrap bin.

I'm going to reinforce what was said in a previous post, USE ANTI-SEIZE! If you ever have to remove the hubs again, they'll come out with little effort! Don't put anti-seize on the hub bolts! Use a dab of blue loctite to keep them in there.

 

Hahahaha

I just bought this Jeep. 17 years worth of **** built up. Definitely skipping the dust shields then.