Ball joint removal hell

[brus brother]

08 Outback here in good old salty Connecticut.

Thought ball joint replacement would be a snap but looks like the snap part may end up being the pinch bolt that holds he joint in place!

Soaked it in PB Blaster for a few days but I can't budge it with a 6 point socket.

I am afraid that I will soon be in "drill her out hell" once I snap the bolt.

It seems as though the design with the open space that is pinched together allows road salt and cryptonite like rust to occur from the middle of the bolt outward as well as from each end inward.

I suppose some heat might help but without a lift, I may just be cooking the outer cv boot before I am done.

Is it reasonable to think that continued use of PB Blaster will eventually overcome the will of Mr. Rust?

[Fairtax4me]

Nope.

When they get rusty they don't play. Some persuasion with a hammer on the area the bolt goes through may help bust some of the rust loose.

Plan on it breaking and needing to be drilled out.

[jp98]

A torch will also help a lot on rusted metal. 

[ocei77]

Drlling is easier when you have the right bit first.

If you want to use heat, remove the axle from the hub to get it out of the way.

One of these days, I'll buy that special stuff that absorbs heat so I can use it near these types of things.

 

O.

[idosubaru]

You are wise to question. Each one differs but if it's bad Soaking it likely won't work. Remove the entire knuckle and control arm and submerge the joint - I doubt that would even work. It's just too much rust to saturate all of it. People that don't see really bad ones don't get that.

 

using a smaller bolt and nut passing through that hole is common repair in rust areas.

 

Getting another used knuckle is a way to lessen the down time on this job - assuming the ball joint isn't rust welded inside the knuckle. It doesn't take long at all to swap a knuckle - 2 bolts and three nuts, swap brake stuff and you're done. No drilling or thread repair required.

[nickb21]

One word: impact.

 

Just went through this on my '02. A quick glance at opposedforces says the joint setup is the same.

 

I went and picked-up a used knuckle, as I didn't want to risk doing it on the car (learned the hard way last time). Plus, I decided to rebuild it with a new bearing.

 

Soaked that bolt for two or three weeks in PB, then i dunked the whole joint in acetone+ATF for a few days. My electric impact (6-pt socket) took some long bursts to budge it loose, and just about rounded the bolt head in the process. (Wondering if a higher torque impact would have just snapped it?)

 

That was the easy part. The BJ was also fused into the cup. An air chisel would have been the way to go, but i ended up using a flat/narrow chisel and beat on it forever with a hammer to drive the joint out. The one advantage to leaving it on the car is being able to pry against the LCA, but even then, I doubt mine would have budged.

[heartless]

unfortunately once they get rusted in, a good used knuckle is the way to go.. been there and done that.

As already mentioned, even if you do manage to get the bolt out you still need to get the old joint out, and that can be just as bad, if not worse, than the bolt

 

we have had some pretty good success on some rusted bolts using a product called "Freeze Off" by CRC - but it isnt exactly cheap and results can vary

[86BRATMAN]

Best advice for the rust belt, anti-seize when it goes back together. My cars that are used in winter never go back together without it.

[idosubaru]

One word: impact.

 (Wondering if a higher torque impact would have just snapped it?)

 

The one advantage to leaving it on the car is being able to pry against the LCA, but even then, I doubt mine would have budged.

 

you're right - when prying against the LCA, the strut and bushings move and have so much give, there's almost no impact going to the specific seized joint and the force transfer is mitigated.  prying against the LCA is nearly pointless on really seized stuff...."really" seized, which brings up the very confusing part of this topic:

 

it's highly ambiguous due to the wide scope of how bad it can be.  outside the rust belt these jobs are often cake (compared to the rust belt), lots of methods work.  many methods suggested online that work for rough rust - would have never worked for yours.  and your soaking/impact routine wouldn't work for a few really nasty ones.

[CNY_Dave]

When I did mine on my '03, there is no way they would have come out without my acetylene-oxygen torch.

 

When I did get them out (after heat to cherry red, rotate 1/2 or 3/4 turn, douse to keep heat from soaking the wheel bearing and CV joint, repeat) significant portions of the bolt were missing.

[idosubaru]

Nice dave! You did that on the vehicle with the axle in place? Torch has a fine flame I guess to be precise enough to heat without smoking any rubber parts close by?

[idosubaru]

Did you torch due to pinch bolt or ball in knuckle?

[brus brother]

When I did mine on my '03, there is no way they would have come out without my acetylene-oxygen torch.

 

When I did get them out (after heat to cherry red, rotate 1/2 or 3/4 turn, douse to keep heat from soaking the wheel bearing and CV joint, repeat) significant portions of the bolt were missing.

My head just burst into flames thinking about all of the what ifs...

[CNY_Dave]

I did it axle in place, piece of sheet metal above protecting the axle boot, biggest torch tip to heat as fast as possible.

 

I heated the threaded end.

 

With a big tip you can heat quickly turn the bolt and cool before it all heak soaks.

[Durania]

I dealt with this garbage on my 95 Outback. Both sides snapped off.  Drilled the old bolt out and put this back in its place.

 

Edited June 8, 2016 by Durania