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I'm trying to remove my lower ball joint, and best I can tell, the top of it has been smashed outward to the point where it looks like it won't come out without some kind of metal sheering off of something. I have tried using a press I rented from autozone, and the adapter seems like it *kind of* fits, but it juts out a bit. Not to where there is a gap, but you can see a bit of adapter ring sticking out. I got a few cranks in with my wrench, then tried to hit it with the impact, and nothing. Yes, the ball joint was smashed up before I started working on it, and yes, I probably made things worse by trying to take a couple of wacks with the hammer myself, but here I am. Is there any way to clean up those mashed over edges? Or is this one of those 'your axle is shot' kind of things? I have not tried a torch yet - but I don't think it's going to expand for the overlap.

 

You may need to use a grinding disk to take the mushroomed edge away.

 

Ahh, good idea. Do you recommend going down, towards the floor, or going in parallel, towards the car?

 

I'd just say try your best to remove only whats mushroomed. The casing of a ball joint is hollow for the actual joint to sit in. If you grind too much of that away you may end up crushing the top in making the removal harder. An example would be if one side crushed down, you'd no longer be able to press down straight.

 

Grind all that mushroom away and it should come out fairly easily

 

Use a handheld 2" air die grinder with a sanding disc. Use a 90* angle and remove mushroomed material so the joint can slip free. On removing, heat is your friend, along with a good press.

When I did mine, I had to make a special "pin " and use an engine hoist to hold the axle while using a 20 ton press. It wasn't pretty, but it worked, I smoked 3 ball joint presses trying to get em out

 

Whoa. That sounds awful. And expensive. I may just need to try a junkyard axle at that point.
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it was a complete *****. My lowers just did not want to come out. It wasn't expensive as I already had all the tooling, and the pin I made was done with scrap from work...IIRC it was 1.25" solid bar with a sleeve over it, don't remember the outer dimension ATM, but the sleeve was .40 wall. It was pure beef. I think it's in my build thread somewhere if you want to see pics

A link to make it easier

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f46/ro...6/#post3258119

 

Damn, I have nowhere near that equipment. Hopefully and angle grinder will do the trick.

 

Looks like it was beaten with a sledge. Grind the lip. Wear safety glasses. Clean the bore with sandpaper. Just enough to knock down any rust. When using a balljoint press, tighten it and beat the side of the axle next to the balljoint to release tension. I used a 5lb sledge. Tighten the press a little more, which may be a couple threads only. Repeat until it pops. Dont crank and crank as you can snap the end of the press off. Mine looked just as rusted as yours, and thats what got mine out. Baby steps using the press. I used an old Harbor Freight balljoint press.

To press balljoints in, i recommend (if you do not have them) an adapter kit made specifically for this. You can rent a press from the parts store, but not all presses come with the proper adapters. There are two adapters with an angle to them. The part of the axle where the balljoints press in is angled. The balljoints will bind using a straight adapter. Using shims is doable, but fiddly. OTC 7894 has the proper adapters, but its expensive. I bought a cheap $30 set off Amazon. Balljoints pressed right in. All i used were the adapters out of it.

I bought this one. The reviews claim the smaller sleeve is junk. It is junk. Its thin walled and doesnt take much to flare out.

 

Many thanks for the pointers on getting it out and back in. I am going to try to grind off what I can, but I am worried that the adapter that came with the press kit is just a bit too big. Does anyone happen to know the proper adapter size for the bottom joint?

 

​​​​​​I got the adapter from Amazon to pull it out since the autozone kit didn't have the slotted adapter. With some angle grinding, wacks with the sledge, and the correct press adapter, I got it out. Thanks so much for everyone's help and feedback!


Yall are da best