How to remove thrust arm / control arm ball joint?

[Jon K]

I seriously cannot get the upper/thrust control arm ball joint to come out. i got the 22mm bolt and nut off without dropping the frame by using a box wrench and dropping the impact gun from the topside of the engine bay down... but i cannot for the life of me get the ball joint out. i have pickle forks and a tie-rod puller, but the puller doesn't quite fit over the strut plate and such... what to do?

[paul p (chi-town)]

I seriously cannot get the upper/thrust control arm ball joint to come outA regular ball joint pickle fork is too wide, the narrow tie-rod fork works better.
Oh and a 3 pound sledge hammer (minimum) to pound on it.
Some PBblaster/liquid wrench might help or some here have taken a torch to it.


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93 SE-R ‘Jenny’---94 530iT&A ‘Helga’---92 325i ‘Rolf’ ….”Hang up & Drive!” (http://homepage.interaccess.com/~motria/pablosgarage.html)
”It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error;
It is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error."--Robert H. Jackson.

[Jon K]

A regular ball joint pickle fork is too wide, the narrow tie-rod fork works better.
Oh and a 3 pound sledge hammer (minimum) to pound on it.
Some PBblaster/liquid wrench might help or some here have taken a torch to it.


http://homepage.interaccess.com/~motria/anisig.gif (http://homepage.interaccess.com/~motria/pablosgarage.html)
93 SE-R ‘Jenny’---94 530iT&A ‘Helga’---92 325i ‘Rolf’ ….”Hang up & Drive!” (http://homepage.interaccess.com/~motria/pablosgarage.html)
”It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error;
It is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error."--Robert H. Jackson.



do I pound inward like jabbing at it? or downward like prying on it? i have new arms and bushings so i dont give a **** about the old ones, but i dont want to bend the plate the ball joint is attached too... and tthen when installing a the new ball joint, is it going to be this damned hard but backwards?

[Scott C]

It is a royal pain to get these apart - in my case only the LAST one was terrible - spent 3 days and finally the answer was swing harder. By the way, I damaged the hardened steel ball joint remover, that is how tough it can be to seperate these bad boys.
Good luck,
Scott

[632 Regal]

up heating the knuckle with my aceteline torch before it would pop out!

[Bill in MA]

I ended up having to go out and buy a bigger hammer. I think i took the nut off then bolted the knuckle back to the car and beat the crap out of the pickle fork for a day or so....

Best of luck.

Bill

[Jon K]

Figured it out, made a little thinger bobber, check it out

http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?p=41260#post41260