Date:         Mon, 1 Nov 2004 13:38:10 -0600
Reply-To:     Al and Sue Brase <albeeee@MCHSI.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Al and Sue Brase <albeeee@MCHSI.COM>
Subject:      Re: upper ball joint hell
Comments: To: Robert Harris <rdh24@CORNELL.EDU>
In-Reply-To:  <5.2.1.1.2.20041031165606.030d8688@postoffice9.mail.cornell.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I never use anything but a big hammer, whacking the side of the steeing
knuckle beside the ball joint shank. Put on thick padded leather gloves.
get a BIG 32 oz, maybe ball pien hammer. Smack it squarely and HARD! (do
you understand where to hit?) You are trying to temporarily deform the
tapered hole where the shank goes through.
Al Brase

Robert Harris wrote:

> OK, I am about to toss in the towel and take my van to a mechanic for the
> first time in history.  I think you have to be a he-man to do front end
> work!  Upper ball joints -- how the heck do you get these suckers out of
> the steering knuckle?  Those Germans sure do know how to make a press
> fit.  I have tried: pounding with a hammer; pounding in a pickle fork;
> liquid wrench + pounding pickle fork; heat knuckle with propane +
> pound on
> pickle fork; pound on knuckle itself to shock the ball joint loose (per
> Haynes); pound pickle fork some more...  all this bashing the front
> end is
> great for blowing off stress but the upper ball joint is going
> nowhere.  The only thing I haven't done is pull off the steering knuckle,
> because I didn't want to mess with the brakes today.  Oh, and I haven't
> tried dynamite yet but it's a possibility.  Any suggestions?
>
> Robert Harris
> Ithaca, NY
> '84 Westy "Busaru" EJ22
>
> PS  This morning I replaced my leaky transaxle seals (there's another job
> that requires some serious persuasion, the drive flange seals are
> really a
> tight fit) and switched to Redline MT90 synthetic gear oil.  Wow, that's
> great stuff!  My van shifts like new now.  Anybody having trouble with
> hard
> shifting now that the weather's cooling off, I highly recommend
> changing to
> MT90 gear oil.
>