[JamesInSJ]

So in replacing my thrust arms, I thought I would go ahead and replace the ball joints too. Good design...right? Well my car prev owner being from Virginia for 8 years...yeh...they're frozen in there. Went at just one for a couple hours with various punch/chisel and BFH, and zero movement. Applied heat though probably not as much as needed because I don't want to torch other good things, but no help. I figured before I bought an air hammer that might not work either, I would look around.

https://crunchysann.com/products/f-s...t-removal-tool

They make this perfect tool, but they're out of stock on the f-series sized one and nobody there has replied when they might have it back in stock. One guy on youtube made his own tool out of bolt hardware and bar steel. I'll resort to that soon, but no rush so going to try and get this tool first.

Anybody have this tool they would sell or rent out? I'm in SF Bay Area, California.

[bmwPower99]

Are you hammering with a chisel from the top like this guy?

https://youtu.be/lyRm70nAsns?feature=shared

[JamesInSJ]

Originally Posted by bmwPower99

Are you hammering with a chisel from the top like this guy?

https://youtu.be/lyRm70nAsns?feature=shared

Yep. Went all at it like that guy. Then watched FCP Euro video too where they resorted to an air hammer, and found another reference to air hammer success as well as failure.

[GeorgeThe4th]

I went through the same trouble back in July. Took me a good 6 days. Removed the cv axle and blasted it with an air hammer for a while didn’t seem to do much but destroyed the top of the balljoint. First time seeing the press tool custom made to fit the ears. Would have been a life saver. A 3lb hammer and patience combined with the air hammer and some heat ended up getting the balljoint with 140,000 miles out of a car from Pennsylvania.

[JamesInSJ]

Update... Crunchysann isn't bringing any new stock into production yet while they fight copycats, so off to Home Depot and I bought a 2" galvanized pipe cap and a 2" short galvanized threaded insert. Took my grinder to the threaded insert and cut length and fingers to go around the ball joint wings, and a hole through the cap. Put it on the old ball joint, lined up the fingers and cranked it down, then hit it with the impact. Didn't see any movement, but just a few minutes of hitting it with my 2lb hammer on a large chisel and I got movement! A minute later it was out.

Since I only messed up one ball joint during my thrust arm replacement, and both felt nice and tight anyway, I decided to leave the other side as it is and not risk having it be even worse.

[bmwPower99]

Originally Posted by JamesInSJ

Update... Crunchysann isn't bringing any new stock into production yet while they fight copycats, so off to Home Depot and I bought a 2" galvanized pipe cap and a 2" short galvanized threaded insert. Took my grinder to the threaded insert and cut length and fingers to go around the ball joint wings, and a hole through the cap. Put it on the old ball joint, lined up the fingers and cranked it down, then hit it with the impact. Didn't see any movement, but just a few minutes of hitting it with my 2lb hammer on a large chisel and I got movement! A minute later it was out.

Since I only messed up one ball joint during my thrust arm replacement, and both felt nice and tight anyway, I decided to leave the other side as it is and not risk having it be even worse.

Well done! Can you please show us a picture?

[JamesInSJ]

Originally Posted by bmwPower99

Well done! Can you please show us a picture?

Pics attached here. One finger had to be shortened...not even sure it was making contact with anything...because there isn't any room on one side. I was going to possible remake the whole screw-in insert to accommodate for that and still put a narrow finger to one part that could connect, but it became unnecessary.

While this tool didn't remove the ball joint on it's own, it added the necessary pull/tension on it so that a few solid whacks with my hammer and large chisel got it to release, and it was very easy from there.

So now I went in for an alignment and my tie rods are frozen. GREAT. Fortunately, other than the steering angle being turns a bit at the wheel, they said the rear end was in alignment and the rest was actually pretty close. They tried heat along with a BIG F wrench and couldn't get it to budge, so I'm not holding out that 3-5 days of PB Blaster and then maybe heat myself is going to get it done, and I'll be cutting/replacing the entire tie-rods inner & outer, but we'll see.

[JamesInSJ]

Pipe cap: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Southlan...08HN/100156130

Threaded short: https://www.homedepot.com/p/STZ-2-in...2XCL/202310599 or you can use any 2" pipe with threads on one end, and cut the length and fingers to size.

[bmwPower99]

Fing genius! Thanks for sharing!