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anyone know how to remove a seized ball joint.

I have to replace the axle but the ball joint wont budge, tried everything...

bigger hammer

are you using one of the fork tools? or pounding on the top of the bolt?

You probably not going to be able to just muscle it off. They're in pretty good.

You can buy a ball joint seperator for a air hammer. That is if you own a air hammer and compressor.
A regular fork tool will work just fine with a hammer and a lot of a--.

WD-40 never hurt anyone either.

Krish,

You took off the end link or sway bar link right?

I had a hell of a time with the ball joints as well, but I dont see any reason to take of the sway bar end links. Like happy clown alluded to, some pen. oil, a pickle fork and a hammer will work wonders. If that doesnt work, I used 2 pickle forks and that worked for me. I put them in at opposite sides and wedged then around the ball joint kinda like this < l >. unfortunately this def destorys the boot and you'll need a new ball joint....

However all of this is prob unnessasary.

If your trying to take out the axle there isnt an need to take the bj off. I have put axles in and out a lot of times, and really I you need to do is disconnect the strut from the knuckle.(2 17mm bolts) Once those are disconnected it should swing away enough to take out the axle. You may have to tap on the end of the axle to get it back through the knuckle but its not hard really.

Try compressing the suspension a little when it is all the way to the way down to the bottom of the suspension travel it causes the stud of the ball joint to bind in the hole. Just changing the angle a few degrees makes a big difference on the amount of force needed to get it to pop loose.

You dont need to take the spindle off to change an axle.

Remove the wheel / axle nut
Remove the two strut bolts.

pull the spindle out of the way towards you and to the side a bit.

Bend the axle @ the CV and I use a long bolt to tap it put of the spindle.

In and out in 15 mins.

I actually had the assembly appart when I got my ball joint out. I took off the two bolts and kept the ball joint in place. When I got new wheel bearing put in the guy told me to look into a new ball joint. I compared it to a new one and wow

I held the assembly on a table vice and popped it right out

When changing an axle I've found it be good practice to grease the axle splines a tad so that they don't rust to the spindle. It makes it ALOT easier to remove next time they need replacing.

Now that you say that, I think that was about the only thing I didnt put a little grease on. And that was what I had the most trouble with