Ball Joint Separation

11/24/2007

Well it took me about 3 hrs but I got it in, the hub that is. The old hub had some in/out play to it, maybe and 1/8 inch....

I went at it with a combination of folks advice.

I pulled the caliper and bracket off, and tied in to the spring to get it out of the way. I have a seized slider bolt in the bracket, got to get another bracket......

Then I disconnected the sway bar link from the strut.

Remove tie rod pin and castle nut and popped it out.

Removed the pinch bolt, I saw the bracket that you refer removing when you want to lower the front end and still keep the SARCs.

Loosened the bolt on the trans axle, gave it wack to loosen it from the hub. 30mm deep socket....

Started to walk the knuckle off the strut and walk the hub off the axle. During this process I was able to get a 15mm open end on the two bottom bolts and a socket on an extension to loosen the top bolt that held the hub in.

Once knuckle was off the strut I backed the bolts out all the way but left them in the holes.

Then I gave the hub a couple wacks and walked it out of the knuckle.

NOTE: all of this was done with out removing the axle from the trans or removing the ball joint from the LCA. I did take it easy on the axle by trying not to extend it too far. Just a bit of caution on my part, it may make no difference...

Installed in reverse order.

Total cost $60 for hub and $24 for a 30mm deep socket (NAPA is not cheap). Sorry Scott no beer meter, but I did drink almost a pot of Starbucks Columbia Roast...

Tools used were 1/2" drive sockets, 15mm open end, handle from jack as a lever bar, jack, jack stand, and WD 40.

My point of this is say that the average guy can do it with the help of this great group of guys. thanx a ton!!!!!

I did get a peek at my new trans. She is a beaut!!! So clean and shinny... Oohhh, shinny.....

Thanx again!!!!!--
Dave Manke
96 TR/Tan

I am usually the one trying to replace something and skip taking things apart.

As much of a PITA separating the ball joint and LCA can be, with a Pitmann puller it is simple. and makes this process oh so easy.

So since you didn't remove the knuckle from the LCA I presume you used some extensions to drive the hub out of the knuckle and sneaking by the ABS rings without damaging them is probably the part you have to be extra careful about. Of course a slide hammer attached to the lug studs would solve that...

Scott K

CarQuest has a remanufactured loaded and fully assembled caliper/bracket combo for $40 + $70 core charge. I can verify that they do carry the correct FN74 SHO/Gen 4 bracket

Daniel Holtman

The hub came out of the knuckle with some good wacks to the area by the stud. I got enough separation that I was able to get a thick flat head in the and work it around the circumference to slide the hub out of the knuckle.

So far every thing is in working order. I put 60 miles on it the afternoon back and forth to church.

Dave Manke

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