SuperBeetle: What tool to remove stubborn control arm ball joint?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ค. 2024
- SuperBeetle project: • Get 1972 SuperBeetle b...
I'm refurbishing my 1972 SuperBeetle. There are 3 main projects. Replace all the bushings in the front suspension to eliminate the "super-shimmy". Refurbish the fuel system. And finish the engine rebuild that I worked on in the spring.
The right control arm came out with some work ( • SuperBeetle front susp... ) but the ball joint just WOULD NOT separate. That video even has me taking a big hammer to it. It mushroomed the top of the spindle but it still didn't budge.
I had to buy a specific ball joint removal tool. This video shows the tool that worked and a few others, and the actual moment of separation. - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
I used the same tool from harbor freight to remove lower ball joints from my neighbor's 2002 Ford explorer. I had to break out the Dremel and remove material so the fork would slip around the boot. It worked. It produced a very violent sound when it broke free.
I'm glad it worked!
Yeah, when one of those joints gets *really* stuck, there's a lot of energy built up in the joint as you tighten the screw. Good job sorted out the boot clearance.
Thanks for watching!
I just ruined my ball joint with a pickle fork attachment on my air hammer. I bet the tool #3916D costs less than a new ball joint . . . I just checked yes it is. Definitely worth it
I'm sorry that happened, but thanks for the comment! Thanks for chiming in.
Currently going to buy the last separator shown
Great! I hope it works for you!
What are you trying to remove? Do you have a SuperBeetle as well, or something different? Please let us know how it goes.
Same here on my way to the store right now. I've tried the pickle fork, some heat and a lot of hitting and that mf doesn't want to come out. Ive been stuck on my 2016 toyota corolla ball joint for the last 3 hours. I wish i knew this tool existed, i would probably be done already.
@@fsodn upper control arm on my f150. She popped right apart on the driver side but shattered on the passenger side. Thank god for warranties.
Thanks bro
You're welcome! I'm glad it was useful.
I bought a similar version of that ball joint remover from amazon and the threaded bold bent and so did the center adjustment pin and the ball joint did not come out .
I'm sorry to hear that. I've only removed one stubborn ball joint, and you saw the tool I used to do it, and I included the product code so you could order the exact one if you wanted.
I can't imagine how much force you'd have to put on the one I have to bend it. My ball joint was *really* stuck in the control arm. I'd wailed on it with a hammer, and it didn't come out. But three turns of the wrench and it popped out. The screw is about as big around as my thumb.
What ball joint are you trying to remove? And what exactly tool do you have? In any case, I hope you come up with a solution. Good luck!
Thank you for the reply :)
I’m working on a 1979 beetle convertible . The tool I purchased was the gear wrench ball joint separator tool #3916D from amazon . I ended up just using a pickle fork and a good heavy hammer and a small steel block .
It was way quicker than the time I spent dealing with the tool I had .
Maybe the extra few days of me spraying WD40 on it helped too ! lol
Some ball joint is just more difficult than others, what you want to do is alternate between the removal tool(make sure to lube the tool and pre apply WD40/pb blaster) and hitting the knuckle with a hammer, last week I had a ball joint that wouldn't budge with the tool, had to tighten then hammer back and fort then it finally came out, the removal tool won't work alone for some ball joints.
Yes, I completely agree. In this video, I concentrated on *which* tool worked for me when I'd already been hitting the joint with solvent and trying to get it out with more primitive tools (up to and including a hammer).
A previous video of mine to this one ("SuperBeetle front suspension teardown pt2: control arms") ends with me with the control arm on the work bench, alternately soaking the ball joint pin in the control arm with PB blaster and wailing on it directly with a steel hammer, to the point that the pin was mushrooming over. So this pin was very very stuck, but the context was in a previous video. I guess I should have made the point in this video that the context was in a previous one. Maybe I'll add a link.
Thanks for pointing this out.
The last booing remover broke on me yesterday. Dam
So you used the one that was successful for me...and it broke?
I'm sorry that happened. I gather the ball joint is *really* stuck? What car is it from?
Wow
Glad you liked it!
Yeah, I wailed on that ball joint many dozens of times with a hammer, soaking it with penetrating oil. I was amazed at how fast it popped out with the proper remover.
@2:47 this is case and point why you want to have the nut still on the ball joint. So it doesn't hit you or damage something else.
This tool looks better than the pickle fork I've been using. Though you should only be using it if you plan on replacing it. Because they like to destroy the rubber seals. It's also a nice way to let out some anger you hold for the vehicle with that hammer.
You know, you're absolutely right and I should have said that. (I should also say it my other video where I'm actually hammering on the spindle of the ball joint.)
I was just so completely flabberghasted at this point that it wasn't coming out that I got frustrated. Yes, I should have used a nut as a hammering surface, for exactly the reasons you listed.
I don't know, but I suspect, that if you were wanting to save the rubber boot on the ball joint, the pincher-type remover tool wouldn't destroy it. It has a sort of recess that goes around where the boot is. I think a pickle fork definitely would destroy the boot if you had to really get it in there to pry the joint loose. I replaced the entire tie rod assembly and both ball joints, so all I cared about preserving in this operation was the control arm itself.
Thanks for watching, and thanks for the absolutely on-point comment.
@@fsodn No problem man, great to see people showing others how to fix their own vehicle instead of going to the dealer!
I was on the fence about that separator, and after watching it in action. I want one lol, thanks for the demo!
Terrific! I hope it works as well for you as it did for me.
Please do report back about how well it works.
2:48 that was pre loosened that’s bs. im on day 3 rn with doing that plus an entire bottle of wd 40. Sledgehammer. And more. Hasn’t loosened yet
I appreciate your skepticism. And it is the internet, and it is video, so there are always possibilities to edit. However, there's no need to be rude. How would you feel if I jumped into the comments of one of your videos and flat out called you a liar?
So, responding to your comment specifically, I did exactly what you did. As you can see in my earlier video on removing the control arms, I got the sway bar off. I tried to get the ball joint out with a regular ball joint removal tool (that didn't really fit). So instead I removed the inner end of the control arm, and just removed the ball joint from the shock tower, and took the control arm plus stuck ball joint to the work bench and started hammering on it.
I spent several sessions over two weekends hammering on it with increasing amounts of force, in between soaking it with PB blaster. You can see a bit of that at the end of my "control arm removal" video. I was really hammering it too. It started to mushroom over the end of the spindle. It sounds like I did about the same thing that you did.
So I then did a search, and found four ball joint removal tools available from various stores on the internet and ordered them. One of them was part number W83022 from Advance Auto Parts that cost $25. When that came, I set up the camera and tried to remove the ball joint spindle with each of them, or at least check the fit. A couple of them really didn't fit in such a way that their screw mechanisms would really generate force directly against the spindle. However, the @83022 fit well, and once I got it set, I could see that it was clamping directly to the control arm on one side and spindle on the other. With cameras rolling, I tightened it down, and to my utter astonishment (given how much hammering I'd done to it previously) it popped out in the third turn of the screw.
It sounds like you're basically in the same position as I was before I bought proper removal tools. Feel free to buy one of those tools and try it out to see if still think my video is legit, or I was lying. If it works, then you have a new useful tool. If not, the worst case scenario is you're out $25. I'd love to see the video of either 1) you using it and it working, or 2) you using it and it not working. Either way we both learn stuff, and our viewers will learn stuff too.
Do let me know when you make that video, and I'll be sure to link to it.
@@fsodn I appreciate your communication to your viewers that’s good. And I’m really sorry I was just partly exaggerating and part in the heat of the moment trying to get the ball joint out lmao. My last attempt to get it out I used the puller with my impact and the screw just kept falling out. You know,That big thick black screw that is the one creating pressure. It would keep sliding down the arm of the puller itself. And after like 15 seconds. Once it was almost almost all the way down the puller, socket, and even the battery for my m12 fuel driver, all 3 became projectiles lmao. Battery dropped out. The puller and socket flew half way across the street. And I’ll check out that part number that worked for you. I highly appreciate your video lol. Obviously you’re not gonna stand there and film yourself trying for 3 days straight I completely understand
Well thank you for your additional reply. Very nice to meet you!
Yeah,. I agree, it's very very frustrating. A lot of steel-to-steel joints apparently generally respond well to hammer taps; they get looser. I've heard of people getting off drums, and fasteners. The shock will apparently loosing things like that up.
It may be because of the tapered shape, but it appears, as we've both found out, that shocking the assembly does not produce loosening. It seems to respond more to steady pressure than shock.
Thanks for writing back. I hope you find a solution! I would love to see a video if you getting it removed successfully. Remember, always have the camera running before you start work.
@@fsodn it's nice to see that people are still capable of being respectful and mature towards the person who were not being respectful to you in the first place. @Mike, you showed real class in your 2nd comment and admitted to your faults and I was just wanting to tell you both that the way you 2 interacted is a great example of how it should be done! Good on you guys and your maturity
2:54 🤣🤣 this statement cannot be any more true. All these universal tools never apply to Classic Volkswagen. It has its own designated tool collection.
What I meant was that tool is going in MY VW tool collection, which it is.
And yes, this tool worked just fine for removing that ball joint. I'm sure the VW factory when this car was built had a specialized removal tool, but I don't think I've seen a contemporary tool for that. This one worked just fine for this application.
Thank you for the upload this is going to help me alot when I tackle my ball joints this weekend.
So you have a VW of some sort? Please do report back as to how well it worked.
I would soak the joints in penetrating oil, ideally a day or so before you try to remove them, to try to start getting them loosened up.
I just do it for chevrolet colorado the middle shaft of the tool just benn lol guess what made in where , lol
Ok. I'm not sure I understand your comment.
You tried to remove a tie rod end on a Chevrolet? And it didn't remove the tie rod end or ball joint spindle, and in fact bent the tool itself?
That's a very interesting observation. Did you use the same tool that I showed, same model, same order number, or one sort of like it?
If you used the exact same tool, I'd very much like to see that. Did you get it on video by chance? Can you post a photo of the tool after it failed? That would be interesting to see.
I'm sorry you're having trouble. I hope you find a solution.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Once it’s tensioned you should’ve smacked the control arm with a 3lb hammer to loosen it
A man with no hammer obviously
Thanks for watching! But I have a hammer, and I used it. I strapped the control arm to the work bench and wailed on it with a steel hammer for like an hour, in between soaking the spindle in penetrating oil. You can see this in the video I posted just a few days before this one. I hammered the end of the spindle so much that it was mushrooming over, and I was starting to worry that it wouldn't fit through the hole in the control arm any more.
But even after all that hammering, it still didn't budge. That's when I bought the ball joint remover tools, and why I was so surprised when the one tool worked as well as it did.
Sorry dude...you have to do it while on the car smh...everybody doesn't have a shop...fail
That's a very good point. The reason I did it on the bench for good lighting and being able to see what I was doing with good camera angles.
I also did it on the bench because I'd been working on dismantling this suspension for *weeks*. I tried to remove the ball joint pins on the car, but couldn't, so I just remove the ball joint from the strut tower. I then rented a ball joint removal kit, which didn't work to remove the ball joint, but was able to remove the bushings in the control arm (there's another video in this series that shows that). Then I bought these ball joint removal tool, and of those, this is the one that worked.
This remover will also work just fine underneath the car. See the post-credits sequence where I demonstrate the fit of the same ball joint remover on a different ball joint on the same car, with all the suspension bits attached to the car. It's a bit more difficult to see the footage because, underneath car.
But yes, the reason I made the video is because if you have to remove a ball joint in the field, if my experience was at all representative, this is definitely the one you want. It seems that it will work at weird angles and without a lot of time or messing around.