I have a 1996 Legacy Wagon. I had to replace the front axle on the drivers side and the tie rod boot. While moving things out of the way I saw the ball joint rubber was all crack up so I removed the old ball joint. Now I am trying to get the new ball joint back in the knuckle. It will not seat all the way, and at this point would probably be difficult to remove without buggering it up. I have the ball joint bolted into the control arm and have tried using a jack on the control arm to push it in (both with and without the swingarm bolted up), the pinch/housing deal I have spread with a bar and so on, but that sucker will not pop back in. Any advice or places to send me too? I am a visual person so a write up with pics would work well.

 

Thanks

Edited June 26, 201114 yr by kd7dej

What brand of ball joint? I've read some nasty complaints about cheap aftermarket ones. I am doing mine soon and going with Moog.

Nevermind, walked away shortly before I did this post and approached it again today. Done and fixed. Just cleaned out the socket real good then made sure I used a good wedge in the pinch for the housing. Managed to get it right in when I used the wedge.

 

I spent 8 hours last night trying to get the lower ball joint off my driver's side steering knuckle. The head of the bolt sheared off while trying to remove it followed by 8 hours of blow torching, drilling, drill failure, drill only turning counter-clockwise, drill bits breaking off, etc etc

Ball joints on these cars look like they should be easy to do, but people let them go so long to the point that they're a real pain to remove. I have two Legacy wagons, had to drill out 3 of the 4.