Gunny said:

A-frame ball joint removal.Mine I think had been in there since new, there is bits and pieces of information on how to remove the joint but for me it all seems a bit sketchy. So this is how I got it out.

Firstly I jacked the back axle up as high as I could get it and then put two heavy duty axle stands under the axle. Now I could see the offender or at least the large 30mm nut that holds the joint to the axle. Remove the split pin which can be fiddly, now the nut.

This nut can seize onto the joint over time, trust me you will have a fight on your hands to get it undone, I couldn’t use a blow lamp to expand the nut as my brake pipe is to close, but if you can get heat to the nut you may get it undone. I used a club hammer and a colt chisel to split the nut.

Once the nut was off I dropped the car down and placed my jack under the chassis on one side and jacked the car up again, placing a axle stand next to the jack for safety sake.

Now I could see the upper parts of the A-frame, there are two long bolts to remove these also can seize. What I had done a few days before starting the job was each day spray WD 40 on all the bolts and nuts. I removed the nuts from the long bolts and found the bolts had seized, so again I sprayed WD40 all around them and then began to bang with a club hammer the frame work around the bolts, which eventually released the bolts, and using another bolt of similar size managed to drift the bolts out.

I then returned to the ball joint and gave the stem a good sound whack which released the joint, the ball joint and frame fell to the floor, what I now had to do was release the joint from the fulcrum. I clamped the fulcrum containing the ball joint in my vice with the stem pointing to the floor, I cleaned all rust and muck away from the base and soaked the base with WD40 leaving the whole thing for an hour to soak.

These joints are pressed in with a machine so to get the joint out by hand means you’re going to need to hit the base very hard, Next I found a large heavy duty socket near the size or the circumference of the base of the joint, god that was a big word need a minute.

Ok this socket is simply to use as a drift, so you need club hammer ready and your socket ready put these to one side as you now need to use a blow lamp, use your blow lamp to heat the fulcrum around the joint, get fulcrum red hot or as near as you can, once hot put your socket on top of the base of the joint and hit the socket with your club hammer as hard as you can, you may need two or three more hits but it will come out, REMEMBER everything is hot. When cooled down clean up the fulcrum with wire brush or bench wire brush and give it paint.

Your new ball joint put in your freezer this will cause the metal to shrink and help you when fitting. You need a large socket big enough to go over your ball joint and high enough so it covers the threaded bit on the ball joint, you are going to use this socket as a drift. Clamp the fulcrum in a vice, take your ball joint to the fulcrum, line it in the hole making sure to line up the bolt holes and beat it with a club hammer, it will go in. Refit to car job done

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