i'm trying to gauge if i can do it myself or if i should just pay someone to. anyone do it themselves?

 

You can but you need something like a vise and or a large c-clamp and some spacers to press it out and in. OR you can take the knuckle once out of the car to a shop and let them press it out. It will save you alot bringing the part in than to have them take it off. The single hardest part is removing the axle nut

 

axle nut? helms says nothing about that.

 

You have to remove the knuckle to get to the lower ball joint. In order to do that you have to remove the axle nut

 

helms does not show that at all. all you need to do is remove the wheel, and use the balljoint remover. in fact you can replace the entire lower arm without touching the axle or knuckle.

 

The ball joint isnt located on the lower arm, its located on the knuckle

 

ok, i have a CL, maybe the TL is different. i have a lower arm, and my balljoint is pressed into the lower arm . i can scan the directions in the helms, the only thing it says to do if you are just replacing the lower balljoint is just jack the car up, remove the wheel, and press it out with the balljoint tool.

 

Correct, the ball joint does go into the lower arm, but its connected to the knuckle. To physically remove the ball joint from the car to replace it you have to remove the knuckle (if you dont have a small press) to be able to press it out. The TL and CL are the same. The helms manual is showing how to separate the lower control arm from the knuckle with the tool, not remove the ball joint from the knuckle

 

Hi All....first post!!

Ok fsttyms1, I want to do the same thing....change lower ball joint. I see exactly what you mean. It looks to me like the ball joint is pressed downward through the knuckle and then through the end of the control arm. I can't envision removing the ball joint (upward) without the axle assembly getting in the way. Basically, removing the axle nut is one of the steps required to remove the knuckle from the axle assembly if I'm understanding you properly. Looks to me that to remove the knuckle, you would also remove the tie rod end, the brake caliper as well the pin and castellated nut to the upper ball joint. Once this is done, will the knuckle separate from the axle assembly, by pulling it outward? Would you have to knock it with a hammer?
I'd really like to give this a go, since I've got to change front brake pads anyway.
Thanks
Itch

 

yup, you pretty much got it.

remove brake caliper and rotor. remove upper balljoint, lower balljoint, and tie rod end. you will need to drop the A bracket that goes over the strut. remove the axle nut, and the hub should slide off the axle. bring it to a shop and get them to press out the balljoint and press in the new one. i might have left out a few steps, but it's pretty self explanatory, just the axle nut is hard to get off and also you wan to make sure you tighten it properly.

 

I had the wheel off before to check it out and it seems the axle nut has a "lip" of some sort that is actually dented into a groove in the bolt.....woulda been easier if it has a catellated nut and cutter pin like the ball joint!!
Thanks CleanCL
Itch

 

yes, you need to slip something under there to bend the lip up to get the nut off. good luck. i hope you have air tools. the torque on that nut is 181 ft-lb

 

I had the wheel off before to check it out and it seems the axle nut has a "lip" of some sort that is actually dented into a groove in the bolt.....woulda been easier if it has a castellated nut and cutter pin like the ball joint!!
Thanks CleanCL
Itch

 

Giving it a shot in a few hours CleanCL. Got air tools and a 4HP compressor....so hopefully good on that end! Had to go out and pick up a socket though....that nut's massive...36mm! I was able to bend the lip back by grinding the end of a fairly long hardened steel pin I had into 1/16" point.....just enough to squeeze in between the key in the bolt and the lip of the nut....gave it a few hits with the hammer and it bent back no prob.
I'll let you know how it goes!

 

cool. be sure to let us know how it goes.

 

If not use a breaker bar and a long pipe for leverage. Also try with the impact gun going tight a little bit first, then try backing it off

 

Well guys....I'm back!
Ok, so I got a littlle excited right off the bat! The axle nut came off like butter with the impact wrench....so I though the hard part was over....ummmm.....not quite.
Once I got the axle nut loose, I removed the calipers and tied them up to the coil (out of the way). I tired to remove the rotor....but it was stuck real good....I thought. I knocked the center (where the rim lays up) with a hammer, still nothing. I see these 2 little screws with a phillips head, screwed through the face of the disc. I tried to take them off, but it's a phillips head....hahaha, so obviously they stripped! Who the heck puts a phillips head screw on an automotive part that come in contact with water and salt as much as a disc does?....simply retarded. I got my drill and drilled off the countersunk heads. The discs slid right off at that point. Next I got to work on the tierod end and disconnecting it from the knuckle.....fairly easy and uneventful. I then turned to the upper control arm and disconnected the upper balljoint from the knuckle. Then came the tough part....disconnecting the lower arm from the lower ball joint. Once the nut was off, I tried hammering the S#$T out of it upward. But my car is on jackstands so I got no room to get a good swing onto the ball joint. I hammered top, bottom, sides, everywhere basically to try to get it loose but still nothing. I placed a 2-ton hydraulic jack directly under the threaded bolt of the ball joint and started lifting. It lifted the car clear off the jackstands and still would not break loose!! I then put a prybar between the knuckle and the lower arm and applied pressure "diagonally" basically down and in and then hammered on the bar. This work wonderfully and freed the ball joint from the arm. You need to exert pressure laterally not at 90 degrees or parallel to the joint to break it loose. There was now one thing left to do in order to remove the knuckle. The ABS sensor cable (at least I think that's what it was). What a pain. I couldn't free it from the knuckle where it connects to the axle assembly. I felt like cutting the darn cable since my sensor is blown anyway! Anyhow....I ended up disconnecting it under the hood, threading it through the wheel well and removing this cable with the knuckle. So I got both knuckles off and will bring them to a garage to press the old joints out and new ones in. I decided to change the tierod ends as well as they look pretty ratty. Will leave the upper ball joints on there, they look decent. Am also resurfacing the rotors and putting new pads.

One question....these screws that I drilled out or the rotors, I'm thinking these are screws to temporarily hold the rotors in place until the wheels are "lugnutted" on. Is this correct? If so I won't bother rethreading and replacing them, since 5 lugs will render these 2 tiny screws useless anyway.

Thanks
Itch

 

there's a $12-20 tool called an impact screw driver. a few taps and those screw would've come off easily... i would replace them as i doubt they are any expense at all.

now back to your ball join problem...i just did mine not too long ago and had the same problem lol...ended up taking the whole knuckle with control arm to my friend's shop. i even used a pitman arm puller and idk i was putting too much force and decided to step back and not dammage anything

now to the abs cable idk what you where doing...if you follow the cable there are 5-6 10mm screws that hold it to the knuckle and there's another two holding the sensor (plastic) the to hub theres no reasin for it not to slide out pain free since its plastic-metal. check it.

do things right man this isnt a civic and even then why rig things, get the rotor screws from the dealer when u can

 

Hi etxxz.....you might be right re. the little disc screws.....but remember, I'm in Canada here and salt ain't kind to metal. The phillips "star" was barely discernable as it is no not sure this would have worked. I didn't see much harm in hammering the lower ball joint as I was scrapping it anyway, and I'm certainly not gona damage the 80 lb knuckle with a 16oz hammer. And re. the cable....dude....believe me I tried to disconnect it from the knuckle, although i do admit just seeing 1 screw connecting the plastic to the knuckle . And I didn't remove the 5-6 10mm screws on the knuckle to free the cable....I just bent back the cable holders to remove the cable, much easier that way.
Nonetheless, I'm pretty happy with the results considering 1st time doing this!
Cheers
Itch

 

well...there's two ways to do things: Right.

there is one screw on the actual sensor (i dont quite remember if there's second one) but there's another 5-6 that follow the cable throught the knuckle part that leads to the upper ball joint. Glad you got your car runnin...i had to call it quits today on a rack & pinion swap on my bmw

 

Hi, I just had them replace under warranty on my 2000 tl..have extended contract also had tranny done again..2nd and front and rear sway bar links. the cat only has 65k on and has been garaged and well taken care of.. It rides like a new car now...I would consider doing it check out everythingthing else first to see if you can find anything else and do it together