Help! In ball joint hell

[530iBall]

Doing front shocks, lower and upper control arms. Struts are off the car and I've been smacking the #$@( out of the lower control arm ball joint with a BFH and a pickle fork and I can't get it off. The 19mm nut came off easy. Please don't tell me the BJ bolt is threaded into the steering plate because that's what it feels like it's so damn tight. Any help please!!!!

[stilljester]

Soak it with some PB Blaster --sometimes they really get stuck in there.

[bsell]

Doing front shocks, lower and upper control arms. Struts are off the car and I've been smacking the #$@( out of the lower control arm ball joint with a BFH and a pickle fork and I can't get it off. The 19mm nut came off easy. Please don't tell me the BJ bolt is threaded into the steering plate because that's what it feels like it's so damn tight. Any help please!!!!

I take it you soaked the hell out the stuck part with WD-40 or the like?

You say you have whacked the fork with the BFH, but have you shocked the side of the stuck part of the ball joint (basically you want to 'ring' the steering knuckle's bell) and the bottom of the ball joint? You may need to use a large punch to properly transfer the energy of the BFH to the steering knuckle where the conical part of the ball joint is stuck.

If beating it don't fix it, heat it then beat it. You may have to resort to heating the metal around the conical portion of the ball joint in an effort to get the steering knuckle to open up and break the 'sticktion' you have going on. You do want to keep the ball joint as cold as possible to keep the conical portion as small as you can.

I have seen a fork seperate the ball joint, leaving the 'ball' and conical portion in the steering knuckle with no easy way to get it out. So it might be time to move the 'shocking' somewhere else.

Brian

[icesoft]

Take the control arms loose from the cross members and take the steering plate off of the bottom of the spindle. Place the steering plate across the open jaws of a vise and smack the ball joint stud.

The way the steering plate is designed, there's too much metal between the edge of the plate and the ball joint stud to collapse the taper with a hammer to pop it loose. On those I resort to taking the plate and arms off of the car and beating it on the bench.

[632 Regal]

Amen!

Take the control arms loose from the cross members and take the steering plate off of the bottom of the spindle. Place the steering plate across the open jaws of a vise and smack the ball joint stud.

The way the steering plate is designed, there's too much metal between the edge of the plate and the ball joint stud to collapse the taper with a hammer to pop it loose. On those I resort to taking the plate and arms off of the car and beating it on the bench.

[leicesterboy15]

I had the same problem, in the end I had to conceed and put it back together and get a garage to do it. Here's a link to my thread:

http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=35034&highlight=ball+joint+hell

I tried a pickle form and it didn't work either, then I tried a ball joint separator and that kept slipping. If you can remove the upper arm bolt from the crossmember do as everyone says and remove the steering plate and attack it off the car. I also tried a ball joint separator:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LASER-Ball-Joint-Separator-Cup-Type-1793_W0QQitemZ320161848312QQihZ011QQcategoryZ30928 QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

But that kept slipping. I did the tie rods the other day and had what I think is a moment of clarity. If you leave the nut screwed into the top of the bolt by a few threads and feed this separator into it then there is no way it can slip off! I did this successfully with the tie rods yesterday. I've heard though that the weapon of choice for these is a scissor type ball joint separator:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ball-Joint-Separator-Scissor-Action-Adjustable-Pivot_W0QQitemZ190124169682QQihZ009QQcategoryZ3091 7QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

I haven't tried one but I have one on order (bit lat I know!) Its a pain but dooable, be careful as they come out quite violently, certainly surprised me as I have never done one before. Good luck, hope you have better luck than I did! If you don't have the experience or the balls to just hammer it (like me) then I think you will need one of these tools or have to remove the steering plate.

[e34.535i.sport]

Follow Leicesterboy's advice on the scissor type balljoint seperator and you can't go wrong. Look carefully at how it works, and you will realise that it doesn't necessarily need to go completely underneath the balljoint to work - the important part is getting the point on the end of the bolt where the nut goes. (You'll know what i mean when you try and use it).

Don't waste your time taking the plate off, i've done the upper and lower control arms and tie rod assemblies without removing it. (Obviously you'll need to drop it down to get the lower control arm balljoint loose... but don't bother removing it totally). If you need an in depth procedure holla and i'll post one...

[mamilapon]

I take it out as an assembly: steering plate with thrust and control arms still attached. take it to the press as is.saves time too.And avoids smacking the tripe out of the components too. Good luck dude!