Replacing upper ball joint's dust boot

[alexmak]

Gentlemen, need your advice. I want to replace the dust boots because they are torn, but struggling to get the upper control arm out of the knuckle. Would love to hear your suggestions what's the best way to force these apart

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=162422&d=1644703158

I even tried lifting it with a jack hoping it would help to separate them, but alas no luck
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=162423&d=1644703158

[Jeff Kleiner]

Since you don’t need to preserve the boot use a pickle fork.

Jeff

[alexmak]

Since you don’t need to preserve the boot use a pickle fork.

Jeff

Thanks for the advice. I tried it but wasn’t pushing too hard for now, wasn’t sure how aggressive I can be with it and if it can damage anything under the boot. Will try harder tomorrow. does lifting it by brake rotor help at all? Heating the knuckle, may be?

[egchewy79]

in my experience, you need to hit the pickle fork harder than you'd anticipate and it'll just pop off. get a 5lb sledge to do the job.

[alexmak]

in my experience, you need to hit the pickle fork harder than you'd anticipate and it'll just pop off. get a 5lb sledge to do the job.

I thought we were supposed to be gentle with our cars!

[alexmak]

it worked — I really just needed to hit harder and be more persistent, thank you both!
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=162427&d=1644706251

[alexmak]

since we are on the subject of that, is replacing lower boots the same?

[egchewy79]

since we are on the subject of that, is replacing lower boots the same?

Yup. I did some restoration work on a 1985 Mercedes 350SL and was amazed how hard I needed to hit those things to get them to disengage. I was whacking the outer tie rod from above to the point that it was starting to mushroom the threads. A couple good whacks with the pickle fork and it pops right off

[Derald Rice]

A word of caution....Always keep a loose nut on the BJ backed off away from the spindle when trying to to separate the spindle from the BJ..........It will keep the UCA from flying too far up and separating from the spindle......

If the spindle is not controlled at the top, bad things happen to feet, fingers, calipers, and other parts that are either soft, expensive, or in some cases both soft and expensive/.

[alexmak]

A word of caution....Always keep a loose nut on the BJ backed off away from the spindle when trying to to separate the spindle from the BJ..........It will keep the UCA from flying too far up and separating from the spindle......

If the spindle is not controlled at the top, bad things happen to feet, fingers, calipers, and other parts that are either soft, expensive, or in some cases both soft and expensive/.

Thank you for the warning!

[CraigS]

If you don't have a pickle fork beat the crap out of the spindle w/ that 5# sledge chewy mentioned. It is actually the shock/vibration that loosens it. An air impact hammer w/ a flat end tool works well too. One more hint; when you are tightening the nut remember how hard it was to get apart and realize that as tight as you can pull on a standard wrench is tight enough.

[rich grsc]

2 BFH's, hold one tight against the side of the spindle were the BJ passes though, hit the opposite side of the spindle has hard as you can. The BJ will just pop out.

[alexmak]

If you don't have a pickle fork beat the crap out of the spindle w/ that 5# sledge chewy mentioned. It is actually the shock/vibration that loosens it. An air impact hammer w/ a flat end tool works well too. One more hint; when you are tightening the nut remember how hard it was to get apart and realize that as tight as you can pull on a standard wrench is tight enough.

Luckily I had one! bought it after reading some threads about ball joints and such. Thank you for the heads up!

[Derald Rice]

moved

[Nigel Allen]

X2 on Rich's method.

[Ford & Jeep Fan]

2 BFH's, hold one tight against the side of the spindle were the BJ passes though, hit the opposite side of the spindle has hard as you can. The BJ will just pop out.

This is the way. /\ /\ /\ This make the round hole for a millisecond Not so round. seems to work quite well.

[dbo_texas]

2 BFH's, hold one tight against the side of the spindle were the BJ passes though, hit the opposite side of the spindle has hard as you can. The BJ will just pop out.

Yep this worked for me as well! Was worried I would do some damage but in the end it popped right out once I finally hit it hard enough.

[rich grsc]

Yep this worked for me as well! Was worried I would do some damage but in the end it popped right out once I finally hit it hard enough.
Ya, you need to hit like it's the guy who kicked your dog.