Hi,
I am replacing the lower front control arm on our civic and have been unable to find the right tool to press the balljoint stud into the control arm. I am trying to do this without removing the hub or the knuckle. I don't have enough clearance beneath the cv joint boot to get the ball joint press on. I am not sure if I should disconnect the hub from the drive shaft to expose the top of the knuckle for the press or if I can leave it in there and try to pull them together with a 3 arm puller? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Mark

 

i usually just take the control arm off and have the ball joint pressed out and a new one pressed in.

 

you really gotta take off the whole nuckle/spindle to get that sucker out... its really difficult with the way its angled in there! at least it was on my old 94
be sure to pull off the front spring loaded C clip off the ball joint and with it in a vis get a socket and start driving that sucker outta there... and before you start throw the new balljoint in the freezer, it does help alittle and every little bit helps
once the old ones out put the socket over the new balljoint that ya got greased up good all over and start beating it into place and put on the new clip and your done.
it is a PITA for sure which is why ya really need to pull the whole control arm off.

this is how i did mine. i tried that balljoint removal tool from autozone and it didnt do anything but hack up the end of the balljoint and i had to cut it down just to get it off the lca.

 

The ball joint stud doesn't get pressed into the control arm... it slides right into it. The ball joint is pressed into the knuckle. Removal of the knuckle is required. It's not hard at all though (to remove the knuckle). The only hard part of the job is getting the ball joint out of the knuckle... requires a special tool... or you can do what addiction2bass did.

To remove the knuckle:
•remove caliper from the knuckle (hold out of the way with bungee cord or wire or something, attach to upper control arm)
•remove axle nut
•unbolt strut fork from lower control arm
•remove cotter pin, remove nut, and separate lower ball joint
•maneuver the axle out of the hub
•unbolt tie rod end
•remove cotter pin, remove nut, and separate upper ball joint (or unbolt the upper control arm from the car instead, bringing the upper control arm out of the car with the knuckle as in addiction2bass' picture... to get that out though it appears you would need to remove the strut fork from the car completely.)

 

ya reason why i didnt seperate my upper balljoint is since with the fork tool i always use and a BIG FREAKEN HAMMER.... well it tends to ALWAYS tear the rubber boots! and once ya tear em its either replace or they will make em go bad alot faster since the grease will get out.