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I'm in there replacing the lower wishbone bushings, so have the spring decompressed. Now I just wanted to drop in a new lower ball joint. Can't for the love of me figure out what the heck is keeping this thing in. The bottom separates just fine, but there seems to be something keeping the spindle part from dropping down through the hole. I've banged it with a BFH a bit, knocked the wishbone around a bit, and nothing...
What the heck am I missing?
1989 XJS V12 Convertible (LHD) lower ball joint, driver's side 1989 XJS V12 Convertible (LHD) lower ball joint, driver's side
Has the taper broken free of the wishbone eye, probably not.
Place a support, jackstand, under the wishbone, and then with that wishbone sitting on the jackstand peg, BFH the top threaded section of the old balljoint. They can be Bloody tight, and the stand gives a solid support for the striking effort.
If the inner pivot pins are out, and the wishbone flopping around, that wont work. The option then is a balljoint splitter. Like the one in the snap I stole from google.
Leave the upper ball joint connected to the spindle but remove the bolts that hold it to the upper wishbone. This will allow the spindle / brake assembly to tilt outwards giving you better access to the top of the lower ball joint. Then attack it with a hammer / gear puller / ball joint splitter of your choice. Its tight. When you put the new one in put some antiseize on before you put it together so that the next person doesn't have such an awful time.
I have had nothing but success on all cars I've worked on with the tool GFrancis suggests above. Usually remove the bolt completely,,, then turn it back on 5 turns or so,,, and use the pinch tool. Then, cranking it down, I don't go toooooo far with torquing with several hammer blows in between wrench turns. Usually it'll POP and the bolt will keep things from flying apart. From memory,,, I think I left those bottom 4 1/2 inch bolts til last. It'll go,,, just have to get the right combination of pressures and blows.
And like was mentioned, hammering on something when the force of the blow can travel due to the parts movement (even just a 1/4inch) has a huge effect on the force of the blow actually being focused on the bit being wacked on. The movement acts like a shock absorber...
Has anyone ever used a "picklefork?" You drive it in as a wedge from underneath. Carefully hammer it in with a sledge. Indelicate, but effective.
I've never (yet!) met a ball joint that can't be moved by my pickle forks.
Another trick is to simply use your 5 pound hammer to bash what the taper goes through. The joint will usually drop right out. Not really applicable to our Jags, though, because there isn't enough room for the bashing.
I have a scissor-type and a wedge-type splitter. The scissor-type is my preferred professional option, the wedge-type more when I'm just desperate and not worried about destroying the balljoint.
Before I could afford proper tools, my dear old Dad, God bless him, taught me to use 2 4lb club hammers and whack opposing sides of the tapered seat linkage simultaneously. Invariably, the joint just dropped out from the shock.
Before I could afford proper tools, my dear old Dad, God bless him, taught me to use 2 4lb club hammers and whack opposing sides of the tapered seat linkage simultaneously. Invariably, the joint just dropped out from the shock.
Paul
Still a perfectly viable method as far as I'm concerned. But, you need to have enough swinging room to get a couple solid whacks right on target. Not possible on some cars.
I have a picklefork I used on my MGB, but I couldn't get a good position on the Jag due to access - just didn't line up except if I were under the car, then the wife woulda had to help, the kids would have run amuck, and the world would have ended in chaos. So what worked like a charm for me was to drop the brake assembly away from the car, supported with various things, nut on just enough to reveal the top of the spindle, and also a solid support on the wishbone, and then a nice whack with the BFH. Three strikes and done. Since this was the second one I've done in a very short time, the key was the realization that you've gotta get direct force down on the spindle in a parallel direction tot he spindle - the wishbone has to be supported to prevent it from flexing when the BFH force is applied. Same for the directionality of the force - can't use long bar or such to hammer on as the angle deflects much of the force onto the spindle - has to be a direct, straight-down blow on the spindle top. I hammered the heck out of the first one I did, but I used a bar so I didn't have to drop the whole brake assembly down, support it, blah, and it just deflected the force in the wrong direction - and I hit the heck outta it. Once I took the BFH straight to the spindle top, with everything supported so it wouldn't flex around, I could feel it give easily - probably didn't even need a BFH at that point, a SFH woulda done the trick.
Lower ball joint assembly removal
But, you need to have enough swinging room to get a couple solid whacks right on target. Not possible on some cars.
