Removal of ball joints

[Neil Cundy]

In the photos below you can see that the ball joint (top wishbone) are pressed home in a blind hole. My question is how do I get the ball joints out without damaging anything. If it was not a blind hole this would be easy (the bottom wishbones are not blind holes). The special tool manual suggests a puller acting on the tapper thread - re-acting on the wishbone to remove them, but before I try that I would appreciate some advice, as I am not confident that this can be achieved without bursting the ball joint.






As usual any opinions gratefully accepted !

[Huib]

Put the nut back on.
Put the nut in a vice.
Hit the arm with a hammer

[P. de R. Leclercq]

Ah yes, the eternal ball joint problem; very familiar with this one.

Normally I only ever remove them for replacement.

At Evo, we made a simple tool - just a suitable tube and spacer and used the nut and thread to pull the joint out. If it seemed too tight, we tapped the wishbone and /or heated it up with oxy-acetylene, whilst tightening the nut.

Paul

[neil cundy]

Many thanks - a little job for tonight !
I do not intend to replace them - they seem in very good condition but the grease is hard in places and the boots were slightly split, so they need cleaning, examining and then re packing. As well I want to shot blast the wishbones, examine them then re-paint (or powder coat) and doing that with the ball joints still in would be asking for trouble.
Regards
Neil