MorganM Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Once again a simple 'maintanace' item turns into a *insert every swear word I want to say* two week marathon test of my patience and will to live. Trying to do ball joints; finally got the stud end poped out of the control arm. Time to take out the pinch bolt holding the ball joint into the bottom of the knuckle. Ive hit it for days with PB Blaster. Impact wrench at 100psi and it strips the hexhead of the bolt. Since this happens all the damn time I whip out my snaggers and put the right size one on the head and chuck upto the impact wrench again.... spins the head right off the bolt flush with the knuckle. Welp time to drill it out right? Yep so I center punch the bolt to gimme a good start. Chuck up a small drill bit to do a pilot hole, oil it up, and have at it. Not even 5mm in the damn drill bit explodes. That was about 20 min of drilling to get 3-4mm into a 3cm bolt!!!!!! What drill bits should I use on this hardend steel bolt? Should I just surpass hours of drilling and pull the whole dang knuckle off, throw it in the garbage, and put on another rusted junk knuckle? I swear this is the last rusted out piece of garbage I buy#)($*& Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Got an angle grinder?? much easier. You could mess around changing the angles on the bit to stop it beaking, but it will still take a long time and need lots of coolant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northguy Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Titanium bits - slow rpm is the key with lots of cutting lube to keep the bit from burning up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurboSPFI Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 no no, carbide bits are the way to go.. spendy, well worth it. Cuts through any metal like butter. Make sure you have the cutting oil ready, and buy snap-on, if the bit ever dulls, you can get another for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ogiesdad Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 I had the same thing happen on an '84--used the titanium bit from Sears with some oil and got it drilled out, took a couple hours, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samo Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 no no, carbide bits are the way to go.. spendy, well worth it. Cuts through any metal like butter. Make sure you have the cutting oil ready, and buy snap-on, if the bit ever dulls, you can get another for free. Bing! I love my Dewalt Carbides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qman Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Morgan, swap it out and be done with it. Alot less time involved and the end result will probably be better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurboSPFI Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 carbide spurrs work real good too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RenaissanceMan Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 The strongest drill bits commonly available right now are "Cobalt". Vermont American, Bosch, & Dewalt all make these bits I believe.. I have NEVER dulled a cobalt drill bit. Though I did break one once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msteel Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 You could swap out the knuckle - I did one on my Loyale recently. Mine had the balljoint bolt broken from way back, and the strut pinchbolt broke taking the knuckle off. So be careful! I chose the swap route since I had a parts car available. If you can get the entire axle/bearings/knuckle/balljoint in one piece in good shape, it should be easiest. In my case I put a new balljoint and bearings/seals in, so it was more work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnW Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Morgan, swap it out and be done with it. Alot less time involved and the end result will probably be better. COULDNT AGREE MORE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbchux Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Morgan, swap it out and be done with it. Alot less time involved and the end result will probably be better. +3! carbide and titanium bits are nice...but in this case, it might be easier to replace... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorganM Posted August 19, 2005 Author Share Posted August 19, 2005 After looking over my spare knuckles I'm just going to swap it out. I'm guestimating less time involved and I dont feel like dropping money on expensive drill bits. Already got the spare one torn apart from the suspension assembly; seems to be coming apart alot better than the one I currently have on. Now I'm rather stuck on the bottom pinch bolt holding the ball joint in. Can't seem to get the knuckle to spread far enough to drop the ball joint out. I'll do some searching on the board here and see what others ended up doing. Thx for listening to my ranting fruastration Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbchux Posted August 20, 2005 Share Posted August 20, 2005 Now I'm rather stuck on the bottom pinch bolt holding the ball joint in. Can't seem to get the knuckle to spread far enough to drop the ball joint out. I'll do some searching on the board here and see what others ended up doing. just have arch weld something on to it and pull it out that way :-p I've had to do some pretty gnarly prying to get an old balljoing out of a knuckle...or you could come help me pull my motor and I'll give you a knuckle that's already free of it's balljoint, unfortunately, it's still stuck to the tie rod end....but....close enough right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorganM Posted August 20, 2005 Author Share Posted August 20, 2005 Finally got the one ball joint out. Here's what I did. Put the stud back through the control arm and threaded on the castle nut again. Just enough so it wont rip off the threads. Stuck a 3' crowbar upto the radius rod support bracket, on top of the control arm, and along side the ball joint. Put my right foot on the crow bar to hold the control arm down tight against the ball joints. Wailed with 4lb hammer on crow bar as close to the ball joint / control arm as possible w/o hitting anything else. About every 20 hits I'd check and it would be 1mm down. After 30 min of hammering it finally came out. Unscrewed the castle nut from the ball joint stud and it was free! Onto the next problem. One of the ball joints I bought was fully assembled and ready to go in. THe other one doesnt have the boot on it. I slip on the boot but it's not flush against the ball joint stud. So I guess it just seals against the control arm and that's all that matters? Also do I pack this boot with grease? Thx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humble Nuto 53 Posted August 20, 2005 Share Posted August 20, 2005 no grease (couldnt hurt i guess, might retain water though) the stud is tapered, and theoretically when you scootch the boot down the stud, the diameter increase will fill the hole in the bootie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorganM Posted August 22, 2005 Author Share Posted August 22, 2005 Sounds good; I'll slap it together with no grease then. Got the other knuckle stripped down and repacked with new bearings Now I just need to remove and strip down the other knuckle, swap over the caliper and hub, then bolt it all back together. Still debating on doing bearings on the other side now since the one side has new ones.... :-\ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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