Ball joint removal

[JSimmons]

Okay so here's another thing that is ailing me.

The "ball joints" on the front anit-sway bar and the steering damper are not coming apart as easily as I've seen on other rigs. I've tried using one of those universal pullers that you can get from Harbor Freight but to no avail. I'm thinking of going and buying a pickle fork/pry fork tomorrow at Sears or somewhere.

Anyone have any luck with either of these tools? Got any other tricks I can try out? All the joints are soaking in WD-40 as I type.

Mahalos

[korisu56]

I used pickle forks on all of the above.

[enil01]

Dynamite.

[crazy4ink]

Get yourself 2 hammers. Place the flat side of one hammer against the side of where the steering stablizer goes into your draglink. Take the other hammer and hit the opposite side of the same area. You will produce a shock effect that will, most times, break things loose.

Another thing that will help is to go to Napa and get "Freeze Off". It's an aerosol spray that will break even the most stubborn fasteners loose. Spray that stuff on, wait a few minutes, then use the hammers as described above.

[JSimmons]

Awesomeness.

enil01, you okay?

[JSimmons]

I think I may buy a pickle fork too...just for the hell of it.

[miljeep]

I heard a rumor that Jeepmadman makes custom pickle forks.

[JSimmons]

How do you customize a pickle fork? Just curious.

[muddyluxury]

How do you customize a pickle fork? Just curious.


i will post some pics of the custom work in a little bit

[JSimmons]

Cool. I think I may need one. One that is customized to scare the sin out of any and all tie-rod end/ball joints that it encounters. Thereby causing them to separate away from whatever they're connected to on the Jeep.

That would be a hell of a customization.

[HillBillE]

PB Blaster works a lot better than WD40. I also just use 2 BFH's, the shock created with a good whack drops them suckers fast!

[JSimmons]

I think I'm going to buy a BF mallet tomorrow alongside the BFH. And a torch.

[4X4R8D]

Hey MilJeep,

Over the weekend at the Hobby Shop. Didn't that guy use an air chisel to pop that BJ off the sway bar?

[JSimmons]

Hi guys,

Okay, so it's been a while since I posted on here but I thought I'd let you know how everything turned out.

I ended up taking the rig to a local shop to have them get the balljoint/tie-rod end deals off. They had to use a pneumatic hammer to get them off and one of the anti-sway bar joints broke the bit on their pneumatic hammer. Crazy huh? Guess I wasn't even close to getting the thing to come off.

Anyway...once I figure out how to post photos, I'll take some pictures and let y'all see the finished product.

Before that, though, I have another thread to post.

[Don]

You should still buy a pickle fork

[JSimmons]

I did. It has a nice comfy place in the toolbox now.

[irish1371]

make sure the sway bar link does not have a load on it. probly make sure the actual sway bar is about level to the ground, if not it tends to bind be abitch to pop apart and spring apart and wack ya in the hand