I am attempting to replace a lower ball joint on my 2007 TL. Most people seem to be able to hammer the old one out of the knuckle; I cannot. I have been at it for several nights in the garage and it has not budged a millimeter.

I have seen one person get it out with a press like this one (which I own) but I don't see how it would fit, given the tight spot where the ball joint would come out where the bearing/hub fit in.

Manual says replace the whole knuckle but that doesn't fit my budget and I'm stubborn. Any pointers?

 

Vendors make Acura/Honda 'supplemental' kits for standard kits, like the one you own shown below.


Here is the Harbor freight Maddox kit, maybe it will allow better access / fitment for removal?

 

Is your knuckle off the car? which direction are you hitting the ball joint?

And are you sure nobody installed an aftermarket ball joint with a circlip retainer?

Buy your replacement ball joint from Honda/Acura if you have not already. Its not worth the risk to use an aftermarket one.

 

Knuckle is off the car and I am hitting it the right way.

No I am not sure, thanks & I will check for this.

 

Thanks zeta, I've picked this supplemental kit up but there doesn't seem to be anything in it that would work for this application

 

Sorry to hear.
Check out the guy below @7:46, he uses a 1" by 24" pipe, as a last resort, to muscle the balljoint out?

Good Luck!

 

You need to brace the knuckle against something solid when hitting the ball joint.

Try using a 2x4 thats butted up against your concrete footing for your garage.

A couple of good hits on the ball joint's spindle will for sure knock it out of the knuckle (assuming there is no circlip). You need a substantial hammer. Not one for a doll.

 

This is getting comical...

 

zeta that was the thing I needed! Had an old 1" by 12" pipe, 5 minutes was all it took. Don't know how missed that, thought I'd exhausted Youtube. Thanks so much!

The issue was the spindle was too unstable for the force of the hammer strike to have an effect. Pressing off the collar that fits into the lower control arm, cutting off the boot and using the 1" pipe is what did the trick for me.

 

Nice job & congrats on you success.

 

I unfortunately am having the same issue on my 04 TL 6 speed knuckle. I have not used a pipe, but I have gotten a 25mm socket that fits over the sleeve, butted it up against a concrete footing, and gone to town with a hand sledge hammer, and a full sledge hammer. When that didn't even slightly budge, I heated up the knuckle and went to town again. It still hasn't budged. I have the Icon master ball joint set that supposedly has a bunch of Honda adapters, but it looks like I have to remove the wheel bearing in order to get the chonky adapter to fit. I am going to a buddy's shop tomorrow to see if a hydraulic press will help.

 

I had the same issue when doing my ball joints on my TL. The only way I could get it out was brace the knuckle against the floorjack (raised the floor jack so the ball joint part of the knuckle had support, and the other end was against the bar with the wheels on the jack) and put a socket over the ball joint itself (slightly smaller than the OE ball joint) and hit it with a 4lb hammer. The youtube videos I saw had the guy barely bracing it and it fell right out! Mine took me some time to get it out! Install was easy with an electric impact.

You can sort of see the pic of my orange floorjack on the bottom and how I was trying to hammer at the balljoint first without the socket, then the wrong socket deforming the thread:

 

I used the "powerbuilt loaner toals from advance auto parts - SKU 648617 and it had a socket that did the trick for removal

 

also it looks like your lower control arm balljoint sleeve came out too! That's a problem!

 

I think pounding just isn't gonna do it. Here is my setup that I used to beat on this thing. Keep note that it was braced up against the concrete footing.

 

Thanks for letting me know, is this for the Honda extension kit for the powerbuilt press?

 

I did it without the honda kit! You are pressing on the lower ball joint sleeve that's supposed to go into the control arm and not the ball joint itself thus causing your issue!

 

once you get that ball joint sleeve off:




you need to have the socket that you are hammering on hit here:

 

I see! From some of the videos I've looked at, they have hit on the sleeve to get the whole ball joint out. I need to get the sleeve off anyway, I will try that and we will see how it goes. Thank you for your help!

 

I got it all back together again. What ended up happening was as I was hammering away, all the force went into putting a solid dome on the cap that holds the ball joint together. So once I cut off the end of the ball joint to get the sleeve out of the way, the hammering force went into the pressed in part of the ball joint, and it came out! I also discovered that you need to make sure that your receiving cup needs to be super deep so that the ball joint press doesn't blow the ball joint to pieces.

 

Glad to see you got it out! How was installing the new ones? Did you end up saving and reusing the LCA ball-joint bushing?

 

I had to put the cut piece of the ball joint into a ball joint press to get the sleeve off. It just fit right back into the control arm. Turns out the attachments to get U joints out works perfect to get the sleeve off the old ball joint end.

 

several years ago on this TL i used a short handle 3 pound hammer from harborfreight and a wide chisel.
It destroyed the outter lip of the old ball joint, but who cares about the old ball joint?

This is the hammer (It took 30 large whacks to get it out) Little by little it will move the ball joint. I saw 1 guy on YT use a power hammer..
https://www.harborfreight.com/3-lb-h...mer-67817.html

This was Not the chisel I used but it was something like it. The chisel may have been destroyed in the process, but it was cheap, I didnt care)
https://www.harborfreight.com/3-inch...isel-6759.html