How to use ball joint separator

[Lex400]

Well whatever it takes to get those BJs off. From your experience does removing ball joints with the method you used damage the BJs. I need to remove a control arm/BJ but need to reuse my ball joints.

cheers

[LeeRoy]

In my experience:
- Pickle fork - only damaged the boots
- BJ Seperator (pictured in this thread) - Nothing damaged
- Hammer - will damage the thread if you hit it, hitting the hub/steering arm is fairly harmless.

[JustCallMeOrlando]

Well whatever it takes to get those BJs off. From your experience does removing ball joints with the method you used damage the BJs. I need to remove a control arm/BJ but need to reuse my ball joints.

cheers

The boots have lost a little of their grease, so I'm just going to pump a little in them once I'm done, but they're all in pretty much perfect condition.

[JustCallMeOrlando]

And then on the last ball joint the tool breaks. Yay!

On a side note, the boot was already fucked on this one, so perhaps a pickle fork will be fine.

[JustCallMeOrlando]

Well, no pickle fork required. When I made the decision to remove the brake dust covers on the rear and replace them, I realised I had enough room to try wedging something solid in for the hammering. I used a jack stand, then wedged a big adjustable spanner in, few blows with a gympie and happy times.

[TERRA Operative]

I used a small 2 jaw bearing puller to separate the joints in my super strut suspension when I did my coilovers.
I didn't want to risk damaging the joints (they're waaay too expensive to replace), the puller cracked the joints without even a mark in just two turns of the turny bit.

[petergoudie]

I've seen people use two hammers and hit them simultaneously on opposite sides. This tends the flex the area where the taper is fitted.

Much better still is an impact/air chisel. These are the tiny pnuematic hammers that hook up to your air compressor. Cost about $35 at Supercheap & k-mart. Use a chisel stem with a flat head. It will push out those ball joints before you have a chance to blink. Undo the nut just one turn as sometimes everything drops out on the floor or onto your foot.

[Lachie]

I've seen people use two hammers and hit them simultaneously on opposite sides. This tends the flex the area where the taper is fitted.

Much better still is an impact/air chisel. These are the tiny pnuematic hammers that hook up to your air compressor. Cost about $35 at Supercheap & k-mart. Use a chisel stem with a flat head. It will push out those ball joints before you have a chance to blink. Undo the nut just one turn as sometimes everything drops out on the floor or onto your foot.

I've used the two hammer trick before on tight ball joints. My uncle showed it too me and it usually works a treat

[JustCallMeOrlando]

I did initially try that before bending the brake cover. Main problem was inability to have two flat sections opposite each other where I could strike it hard enough and evenly.

[Hendo]

I also snapped a scissor type as illustrated previously, and I was recommended one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Pitman-Arm-Pu...ts_Accessories

which worked awesome, and looks just like the tool stated in my manual.

Jzz30 LCA ball joints are pretty hefty...

[Lex400]

I ended using a 2 jaw gear puller, same principle like the pitman but with flexible arms.

Once I screwed the middle part in and there was tension on the BJ it still did not budge until I gave it a couple taps with a hammer on the side of the control arm around the BJ area, then it just popped out.

[ONCE-NA]

Dunno if anyone's asked yet but I'm in the process of doing the ball joints on an AE86 and I cant get the new C-clips on. I'm having trouble finding a suitable plier type tool to do it with and have tried dicking about with the wrong tools and just want to do it easy and right and not stab myself with something.

[petergoudie]

Can you put up a photo of the c-clips and the joint so I know what they look like? Possibly then we can all try to solve the problem.