Date:         Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:25:02 -0800
Reply-To:     "Mike \"Rocket J Squirrel\" Elliott" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Mike \"Rocket J Squirrel\" Elliott" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Upper ball joint - WTF? GOT IT!
In-Reply-To:  <017101c7521e$f58d8ea0$0c02a8c0@eric91xuut3737>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Thanks everyone who pitched in with a solution.

Neighbor dropped over. Fellow's a retired electrical engineer with an RF
background. "Well, there's your problem," he said. "You need a pickle fork."

Wandered back with a couple of sturdy little gadgets that look like a
bifurcated fork from one side, a wedge from the other. Popped them upper
ball joints out right smart. While I was tidying up, I saw that several
helpful emails had come in. One from Sam Walters pointed me to Tom
Carrington's site at

http://volksweb.relitech.com/uballjnt.htm

where the casual observer will notice the use of a pickle fork.

What an electrical engineer with an RF background is doing with pickle
forks may remain a mystery.

--

Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR

On 2/16/2007 3:05 PM Airic wrote:

> a litle heat on the knuckle, followed by some spray lube upwards should get
> it, put the nut back on the joint to give you more wacking area, or put the
> 8mm socket cap screws back on the arm, and beat the arm up using the wieght
> of the knuckle to help.  you can get it it is just a bit stuck.  tight fit,
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 4:47 PM
> Subject: Upper ball joint - WTF?
>
>
>> I thought these were the easy ones?
>>
>> Can't get the old ball joints out of the control arm. I've got the 8mm
>> cap head bolts out, and the ball joint's main nut off. I've dropped the
>> caliper to get a good shot at the end of the ball joint's stud and have
>> tried banging away at it, and it won't come out. Bentley's shows using a
>> fancy tool to get the thing out of the control arm. Don't got that tool
>> and I'm presently stumped.
>>
>> --
>>
>> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
>> 71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
>> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
>> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
>> KG6RCR
>
>