It can be quite expensive to purchase a ball joint press or separator tool. So knowing how to remove ball joint without tool in your vehicle is one of the essential automobile DIY skills you need to acquire. With this knowledge, you do not need to also stress about building a homemade ball joint press. You just need some simple tools you have in your garage to help you out with this process.
Your ball joints are essential components of the front suspension on practically every automobile manufactured. This component provides easy movement between your vehicle’s control arms and steering knuckles so you can have a smooth and safe ride, allowing you to control your vehicle’s wheels effectively.
You can read our previous article on the symptoms of a bad ball joint to know when the ball joints of your vehicle are faulty. This article will show you some ball joint removal tricks to help you replace your upper and lower ball joint without having to go to the mechanic or spend your money on buying any joint press tool.
How To Remove Ball Joint Without Tool (Upper And Lower)
Strictly follow these steps to pull off this repair successfully. It is quite technical, especially when you are not using any upper or lower ball joint removal tool. Therefore, you need to know how to do this properly to avoid damaging other parts of your vehicle – or directly giving an impact to on your camber.
Phase One
Put on your safety wears. Like we always say in our previous articles, this is a crucial step if you are about to perform any automobile repairs. If you don’t own any safety wear at all, then you need to get one. In fact, any person that does not have these should stop and not proceed at all. Always Get your mechanics toolbox close during repairs to enable you to grab the tools you need quickly.
Phase Two
Next, you need to lift your vehicle. Make sure the car is resting on an even surface, and also remove any object on top of your vehicle. Take-off the axle nut and lug nuts holding your wheels; the axle nut of some vehicle models is enclosed, so you might need any screwdriver types to pry the cover open. Please do this carefully. Removing lug nuts can prove difficult, especially when they are all rusty. Give the lug nuts a quarter turn each; do not completely remove it.
If you are using a jack, then you need to properly set your jack at a strong point in your vehicle. Using a soft part can damage your vehicle parts. If you are not sure about where to place the jack, inform us. We would show you the best and safest position to set your jack, and jack stands based on your vehicle’s model. After lifting your car with your jacks, place your jack stands at strong positions under your car.
Ensure your jack stands are well placed, so the jack stands will evenly distribute your vehicle’s weight. Now completely take-off the lug nuts of your wheels so you will be able to remove the wheels from your car. It is not advisable to use a car lift for this process due to the method we need to use to get this done. But when using a ball joint separator, you can consider lifting your vehicle with a car lift.
Phase Three
Now your vehicle is all lifted and held by your jack stands.
For ball joints in the lower control arm. Place your jack directly underneath your axle hub where the ball joint goes down. You can put a piece of wood in between your axle hub and the jack. Then gently raise the hub a bit. Now you should be able to use a hammer to separate the bottom part of the joint from the top.
Always be aware of where you are hitting. It will take some time and a bunch of different angles to get your ball joint to break loose, but you will see and hear the sound when it finally does break loose. Take care while using your hammer to hit the housing.
Phase Four
Now that you have everything apart, it is an excellent time to double-check your other joints. Examine if you have a bad CV joint or other faulty components. If any fault is found, you can use this opportunity to replace them. Clean up any part covered in debris or dust.
Make sure your threads, if you are using it, are nice and clean along with the nuts because now that it is loose, you might have a hard time getting the nut tight and getting it to seat the way it should. Also, when you go to put the hub back on and the carrier for your brake caliper. Make sure you a lock to hold them to make sure that they don’t come apart on you.
Phase Five
Use your hammer to completely take-off your bad ball joint. You might also need some other tools to help you out with this. If not, your ball joint won’t press out. Get your new joint ready to be installed. Before installing the joint, thoroughly clean area the joint is to be seated. You can also apply lubricant within the interior part.
A ball joint has a piece of tube that matches the diameter of the ball joint’s seat surface. So when you drive the joint, that’s where it stops. Now apply pressure on your jack to lift the tube so you can force your ball joint into place. You can also use a hammer to help in the joint’s seating process by hitting the top of your joint’s seated area, but you will have to do this carefully. Make sure you do not hit other regions. Continue lifting the tube and using your hammer until your ball joint is seated correctly.
Phase Six
For how to remove upper ball joint without tool, you need to locate the upper control arm, which the manufacturers usually fix at the top of your vehicle’s front suspension system. You will see a circular cap and a thread that leads to the arm. The cap encloses your upper ball joint. Use your drilling tool to drill through your rivets used in holding up your ball joint. You can take-off the remaining part of your rivet fragments with a hammer. Now use the stud to trace your cotter pin. It always surrounds the stud.
You can unwrap your cotter pin from your vehicle’s stud by using nose pliers. Then continue with the same method used in removing your lower ball joint for your upper ball joint. Once your upper ball joint is out, carefully use your hammer to place the new joint in its proper position.
We always advise not to use so much effort while using a hammer. Just use it nice and gentle. When your joints are well seated, you can let your jack down and finish coupling everything up, putting the separated components back together.
See that! You have been successfully replaced your ball joint in the upper and lower control arm without using any unique tool like the ball joint press tool, for instance. Please note that we are not implying that using special tools is not good, but if you can’t or don’t want to purchase those tools. Use this method to change your ball joint. You can read other articles that will show you how to make a homemade ball joint press to make this process even more comfortable.
Final Words
Now you don’t have to worry about ball joint stuck in steering knuckle or other ball joints issues if you do not own any special tool. By reading this article, you have been able to equip yourself with the necessary knowledge on how to remove ball joint without tool. As we stated earlier, this is a very technical process, so you must strictly follow the steps.
Please provide feedback so we can know how this worked out for you.
