2000 OBW. Need to change front ball joints. Any tips? Don't want to break anything half-way through the job.

start daily spraying everything with penetrating oil - start last week.

 

you might take a look at;

 

 

 

 

hopefully, some rust belt guys will chime in.

 

good luck

My concern is the pinch bolt. It appears to thread into the hub, rather than having a nut. True? If so, I have visions of snapping the head off and leaving me in a difficult position.

My concern is the pinch bolt. It appears to thread into the hub, rather than having a nut. True? If so, I have visions of snapping the head off and leaving me in a difficult position.

 

I have no experience with that but, pretty sure you're right. Do a search or wait for someone else to respond as there are tricks involving drilling, maybe heat, etc. to help with the pinch bolt.

 

did you start putting penetrating oil on yet?

ball joints are easy 8 out of 10 times (making those numbers up and it's probably 9.9 out of 10 in the non-rust belt). if you want to assume you're one of the 8 out of 10, then just go at it with normal tools, fairly straight forward.

 

if you want to be prepared for what rust can throw at you:

 

1. what he just said in the prior post. spray both sides of the pinch bolt on the knuckle with PB Blaster, Liquid Wrench, or YIELD (doubtful you'll find that though but it is the best - $20 a can). make sure you use something really good - WD40 does not count.

 

2. do not attempt this without a pickle fork. they rust/seize inside the control arm and with the *play* afforded by the strut/spring it's hard to get the full work out of digging bar, pry bar, impact, etc.

 

3. in the worst case scenarios the ball joint is rust-welded up inside the knuckle once you get it out of the control arm. this is the hardest problem to encounter but at least it's rare. i've had to drill them out before...un....be....lievable pain in the but.

 

*** if there's a special tool to yank the ball joint out of the knuckle then get it - hopefully someone else will chime in on that?***

 

maybe a ball joint separator does that? (i've never used one before). i'll be looking into it since the last one i did was one of the worst ever...and it was on a 2003 of all things. not doing that again, the one week 8 hour ball joint job. LOL

No, but I will shortly. TIA.

Spray all the bolts down PB Blaster or whatever you find works the best. If you can't remove the bolt with relative ease you may need to heat the spindle in that area. Make sure to remove the boot and clean up as much grease as you can to prevent a fire.

 

The bolt may not be good anymore. Make sure your new ones come with bolts as they are grade 8 metric and are hard to find in some areas.

I was just going to say that if you have access to a torch that it may help, in both getting the pinch bolt out and the ball joint out also. When I did mine on my Outback the driver side came out without any problems but the passenger side was a fight for a while. That was until I picked up a chisel set to use on my impact wrench to spread the metal a little where the pinch bolt goes. One other thing, when you use the liquid wrench or what ever you use to loosen the crud on the bolt, tap the area with a hammer to help drive the liquid around the bolt to loosen up the rust.

On any of my soobs, I have not yet anyway had to replace the ball joint, but I've been lubing the pinch bolt and trying to loosen it over the years just to see.

Forget about it, that dang pinch bolt is siezed in there on all my soobs. If it has to come out, I'll have to shear it off, drill it out, then use a a bolt with a nut which I've seen someone else mention. If the ball joint is seized into the bearing housing, I am confident Kroil will release it, provided it has enough time and vibration to work at it.

GD has mentioned these before.

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-4-quarter-inch-forged-ball-point-joint-separator-99849.html

 

I got one to do the ball joints on my brother's '93 imp. I would not have gotten one of them off without this tool. It is the shiznit, as the saying goes. On the driver's side I cranked it down as much as I would dare and then tapped it with a hammer. The joint came out explosively sparks and all. The passenger's side was easy. I highly recommend this tool.

Nice thanks for the info. I think I have that HF tool, but I might have the C frame press I can't remember. Nice to know it will do the job!

Ed. from http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=126528

 

"To avoid snapping the pinch bolt, I try first to break it loose with a short breaker bar (12"). If it starts to twist more than 5 degrees, I drill a .125 hole straight down the axis from the thread end about .75 inch. This seems to reduce the pressure or something, gives the twist torque somewhere to expand. I drilled the left, the right broke loose no problem.

 

To lever the socket our of the knuckle, a long spud bar for leverage and it's free. A pickle fork finished the job on the stud end. Awesome. Found new pinch btolts at Ace Hardware, called "class 8.8" which equates to Grade 5. I think that is better in case these ever freeze up and need to be drilled out.

 

Just got to get that abs stub out of there and I'm golden. And I have my technique down now. And I'm replacing yet ANOTHER inner right boot (Actually the whole shaft now that I see the outer boot is cracking).

 

My advice, at least for salted areas, any time you have it up on jacks, remove and antiseize every bolt you can reach."

ball joints are easy 8 out of 10 times

 

I would say break 8 out of 10 times, but i am in the rust belt!

 

Take all the advice from the guys in the rusty states. If it worked for them, it should be easy for you.

 

Take your time and do not turn the bolt faster than it can un-thread.

 

the harbor freight tool will do the job.

 

If you bust the bolt you can still get it out, but uou should remove the knuckle and do it on a bench, and you will have to use the pickle fork anyway.

 

Do it now instead of later when it WILL be rusted stuck

I just had to do this on my impreza l used a propane torch and heated it up, and used an impact came out no problem, and i live in NY and my car is a rust bucket, but the ball joint would not come out of the hub, ended up going to a local junk yard and got a new hub (broke old one) that had a good ball joint for 5$ more than a new ball joint would cost, so if you have that option it always helps

I don't have good tips on extracting the ball joint housing from the knuckle, because I have never done that, but for pushing the tapered stud out of the control arm, an OTC two-jaw tie rod puller worked for me. One has to be careful about positioning it, because the control arm isn't flat, but once you tighten it, it should stay. I believe a correctly sized cup-style remover, one with a slot on the flat top and a screw on the bottom, would work even better.

Last time I did a lower ball join on a Subby (in Chicago, super rustbelt) the bolt holding the joint on snapped off and we had to drill it out. Only took 5 hours.

I just did the ball joints on my '84. They were original as far as I can tell. And even without any corrosion, it wasnt exactly fun. Removing it from the control arm wasnt an issue. Over the years the ball joint had become pretty frozen in the knuckle.

 

About 20 minutes per side in the vise beating on them. First use a cold shisel to try to open the pinch housing, then a chisel between the ball joint lip and the knuckle. Eventually they cam out.

Here is the answer to getting the ball joint out of the knuckle:

 

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?search=true&item_ID=739363&PartNo=BJR1&group_id=675664&supersede=&store=snapon-store&tool=all

That tool must be well worth the price and I will buy it if I need to replace a ball joint. Unfortunately, it doesn't help with rusted pinch bolts.

I had the pinch bolt snap off before on my Legacy. But since I now live in Colorado, instead of dealing with drilling it out I just got a new hub for $25 at the local junkyard, rust free. And there are a lot of them here.

 

I know that probably doesn't help you out too much though, since you are on the other side of the Miss.

On a lark I called one of my local dealers and asked how much they would charge to replace my front ball joints. Answer? Approximately $750! Insane! But to his credit he did say that he doubted that I need them; they rarely fail; other parts usually go first, like wheel bearings and lower control arm bushings. But seriously, $750? Parts are $30 per side, and I bet any dealer mechanic can R&R them in an hour.

Sounds like the proverbial boat payment.