getawaycar

Hello everyone, been a long time since I have posted or even visited. How time flies! What brought me here today is to share with you a tool I found that worked absolutely stellar for breaking ball joints loose from front spindles.

It is Blue Point (snap-on sister co.) Part number YA1300. It is actually for spreading ports on Chevy exhaust manifolds, but works great for this also.

I jacked up the car and removed the front wheels. I set the lower control arms on Jack stands and removed the tie rod. Loosened the nuts on the ball joints and inserted the expander between the nuts. The expander has a v shape cut out of the ends which actually works to my advantage. I put a screwdriver bit at each end which stuck out the sides enough to center the tool on the castle nuts. Expanded the tool and POP! Ball joints released with no damage that you can cause with a hammer or a pickle fork.

The weight of the car holds the spring collapsed and the lower control arm in place. Remove the nuts the rest of the way and lift the upper control arm out of the way to remove the spindle.

You can order the tool from your local Snap-on dealer.

Chris

getawaycar

Here are some pictures

MDchanic

Great idea! Other companies (such as Lisle) make the same tool as well.

Thanks.

- Eric

getawaycar

Hey Eric, been a long time. Got a part number for the Leslie tool?

Chris

RetroRanger

joe_padavano

That's essentially a duplicate of the factory Kent Moore tool shown in the Chassis Service Manual.

mrolds69

Many Snap-On + Blue Point tools are made by Lisle and often cheaper to buy from them, but not always. You can usually add a 0 to the number for the Lisle part...1300 vs 13000. THe Snappies are a pr, and Lisle is one.

ELY442

All these years as an auto/truck mechanic, I've never use those tools. An old timer mechanic seen me with the pickle fork and told me if i use that i can damage the grease boot on the ball joints. So he showed me the way he did it without any damages. He said loosen the ball joint nut a couple of turns, get a heavy ball peen hammer and give a good whack on the spindle where the ball joint connects to. It will pop loose. I've been doing that ever since.

joe_padavano

I've never had much success with the BFH approach against the spindle, plus it can get tight in there, so it's not hard to hit something you don't want to. The jackscrew tool has the advantage of not requiring you to swing a sledge hammer in the general vicinity of your fenders...

Professur

I've had luck with everything EXCEPT the farking fork. Best tool I've used is ... But don't use it to force the issue. Apply it, and apply a certain tension. Then tap the middle finger. If you've got the tension right, the whole thing pops free. As for hitting the spindle, that works ... but you don't want your biggest hammer for the job. 24oz gets the job done. It's far more about where you hit than how hard.

ELY442

Its not that tight for me. I have plenty of room to hit the spindle. It depends on which side you're on. Just turn the spindle all the way to have the spindle exposed the most and then give it a whack. Plus, I never hit the fender.

ELY442

x2

Lady72nRob71

And then there is the redneck (or cheap-man) version of the same tool...
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...tml#post287934
Worked for me!

Yellowstatue

I made my tool with a tall (long) nut and two half inch bolts from TSC. But it would be better with a cup shape on the bolt heads to keep it from slipping.

Professur

Had to do a CV on a 2000 Civic last night. The above tool wouldn't fit so I reached for my hammer. Popped the tie rod on the second swing. Sweet. All the bolts for everything else are beyond stupid tight ... previous owner's mechanic was obviously gun happy. Idiot. Every bolt is at about a zillion foot pounds. Finally get the brake parts off (Not strictly necessary, but it makes the knuckle easier to work with) and line up on the ball joint ... *whack* nada *whack* nada. Frig ... gonna be one of those days. If you've never seen one ... Honda puts their ball joints in upside down .. so the joint is in the knuckle and the stud goes through the control arm. *whack**whack**whack* Damnit!! *whack**whack**whack**whack**whack**whack**whack** whack**whack* @#$%^& *whack**whack**whack**whack**whack**whack* "Dad." Huh ... my son's behind me watching. "what are you trying to do" "I'm trying to get this ^%$&# joint to move" "Um, Dad ... it moved about 40 whacks back" "Dafuk?" Sure enough, it was loose. The stupid way Honda has it in means that it doesn't pop open ... it pops and falls back closed. And they didn't spring the knuckle, they sprung the control arm so it doesn't just fall away. GAH!!!!!!!!

therobski

Thats a great tool, looked up the Lisle on Amazon for $12.00. It's just me I guess, but before I would pop the ball joints loose from the spindle I would still remove the shock and use a spring compressor and put tension on the spring. Maybe I'm to causious or missing something?

ELY442

I use a floor jack and put it under the control arm where the spring sits. I pump up the jack just to relieve some of the spring pressure. It will NOT pop out into your face. A lot of people think this way.

therobski

ELY442, how do you safely remove the lower control arm without compressing the spring? My main thought is if your going to remove the upper control arm I'm going to replace the upper and lower ball joints, springs etc?

ELY442

This job depends if you're going to do it in the street or in the shop. If you're doing it in the shop then you have all the power tools you can use (air chisel, air gun, etc)
In the street or garage, I have a very sharp chisel and a 48oz ball peen hammer to cut the top rivot for the upper ball joints while the upper control arm is still attached to the spindle. Once the rivots are off, I remove the front shocks and the sway bar links, I place a floor jack under the lower control arm where the front spring sits, loosen the castle nuts for the upper and lower control arm and give it a good whack to the spindle to loosen the ball joints, I use the same chisel and hammer and put it in between the upper ball joint and upper control arm to separate the ball joint. Once it separates, I remove the the castle nut for the upper arm and raise it and place a 2x4 in between the upper arm and frame to hold it up so I have room to remove the spindle by taking the lower castle nut off. You can use a metal coat hanger to hang the spindle away or use a milk crate and place the spindle on top of it. Lower the jack slowly until the lower arm bottoms out and the spring should come off by hand. If it get stuck, just use a long pry bar and pry it off. It will not pop into your face. There's no tension in the spring because the lower arm is wide open. Make sure you know where the front spring goes. There's an alignment hole in the lower control arm. It can change the alignment. Your repair manual has the pics for it.