Front rear upper ball joint

[Manics]

Just wondering if anyone has any tips on getting the ball joint out of the knuckle?

Pinch bolt is out, luckily they had been out prior. Front upper ball joint just falls out, lovely. Rear upper will not pop. I've mashed the boot with a pinch fork, smashed a chisel into the slit, tried a pry bar in the slit, beaten the heck out of it -nothing. Bought a ball joint separator kit none of which work because of how where the hole on the knuckle is, nothing to push upward on. Need to get the struts out to do my knocking top mounts, an £11 bit of rubber.

On YouTube everyone else's seem to pop out easy!

 

[spartacus68]

Air hammer will remove it. It will be wedged solid with corrosion. I was changing a coil spring on B8 in the summer and the plumes of aluminium oxide corrosion when using the air hammer was a sight to behold! There is an indent I think on arms that the needle tool can fit into.

 

[Manics]

Yeah, air hammer got it out easy. There is indeed an indent at the bottom that a needle can go up into. What a pig to get past the pinch bolt thinking that's the job as good as done, only to get stuck on popping the joint.

The new arm didn't want to press in to the knuckle either, but got it done.

 

[spartacus68]

Glad you got it sorted. You want to go easy on the strut knuckle, especially the aperture with chisels. It’s just corrosion that holds it. Run a drill brass wire brush on it once it’s out, including 3M sandpaper rolled up for the holes and wash down with liberal spray of brake cleaner. Coat the new ball joint with light smear of ceramic anti seize. You can even use a ratchet strap (bit Heath Robinson) to pull them together.