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[terry paget]

Gentlemen, here are my plans for tomorrow, if unwise please tell me.
Plan a)on the wall by the car is a sledge hammer, sort of thing I knock down walls with. I have son Ben hold this behind the taper ( it has a long handle) while I bash the taper with my heavy hammer. If that fails I hold the sledge and Ben (stronger than me) bashes the taper while I hold the sledge hammer;
plan b) I support the arm from steering box from below, with axle stand, on bricks if necessary; I heat the taper with gas torch; from above I place a socket on long extensions on the nut on top of the pin and bash it with the heavy hammer;
plan c) mandula's scheme with the angle grinder.

[Nick W]

You're making this out to be much harder than it is.


Use Plan A, but get your son to do the hitting. It really isn't difficult. You do know that you're striking the socket, and NOT trying to knock the pin out?


A gas torch won't apply enough heat to anything useful. Cutting it apart is just butchery, and takes longer than breaking the balljoint with two hammers.

[Stige]

You're making this out to be much harder than it is.


Use Plan A, but get your son to do the hitting. It really isn't difficult. You do know that you're striking the socket, and NOT trying to knock the pin out?


A gas torch won't apply enough heat to anything useful. Cutting it apart is just butchery, and takes longer than breaking the balljoint with two hammers.

HALP ME UNDERSTAND!! How do you break them apart with 2 hammers 
I feel so silly and confused

I mean the fork tool has worked for me in every single situation with a few hits on the end when nothing else has but I'm still very curious how you do it with 2 hammers.

[terry paget]

You're making this out to be much harder than it is.


Use Plan A, but get your son to do the hitting. It really isn't difficult. You do know that you're striking the socket, and NOT trying to knock the pin out?


A gas torch won't apply enough heat to anything useful. Cutting it apart is just butchery, and takes longer than breaking the balljoint with two hammers.

I am placing the sledge hammer behind the tapered hole in the drop arm while son Ben bashes from the other side, so that the tapered hole in the arm deforms and releases the pin, which drops out, right? I have done it before, in fact it's the forum recommended method for the idler arm. Plan A is my favourite, but I suspect mandula tried that first and it failed.

[mandula]

This is how I finally did it 

Tried to use force to get it off, but finally I was defeated and needed to use some brains (or something like that).
I used angle grinder and small blade to cut it from the ball joint's base, just enough that I could then break that base by hammering where tie rod end is attached. It was really easy job done like that, but only works if you are planning to replace that central rod 

Thank you. You angle grind the end of the tie rod around the ball joint, then hammer it until the ball is released. This still leaves the pin stuck in the taper of the arm from the steering box. You do not say how you remove the pin from the arm, though I imagine you could easily use a lever and screw splitter for this.

Oh yes, I forgot to add that now you can use normal tools to get that pin out, because now there is room to do that.
Tool like this for example

Edit. Yes, I tried everything. But I had no helpers available and car on jacks = limited access. So angle grinder was my last plan. But I think it was best option for that situation and I think if you are going to replace that rod anyway, it does not matter how you do it.

[Stige]

You're making this out to be much harder than it is.


Use Plan A, but get your son to do the hitting. It really isn't difficult. You do know that you're striking the socket, and NOT trying to knock the pin out?


A gas torch won't apply enough heat to anything useful. Cutting it apart is just butchery, and takes longer than breaking the balljoint with two hammers.

I am placing the sledge hammer behind the tapered hole in the drop arm while son Ben bashes from the other side, so that the tapered hole in the arm deforms and releases the pin, which drops out, right? I have done it before, in fact it's the forum recommended method for the idler arm. Plan A is my favourite, but I suspect mandula tried that first and it failed.

AAAAH Now I understand what he means. Smash the hole from both sides with a hammer, or hold one hammer on the other side. Used that before, kinda hard to do if you are working on ground but easy on a lift.

[Nick W]

You're making this out to be much harder than it is.


Use Plan A, but get your son to do the hitting. It really isn't difficult. You do know that you're striking the socket, and NOT trying to knock the pin out?


A gas torch won't apply enough heat to anything useful. Cutting it apart is just butchery, and takes longer than breaking the balljoint with two hammers.

I am placing the sledge hammer behind the tapered hole in the drop arm while son Ben bashes from the other side, so that the tapered hole in the arm deforms and releases the pin, which drops out, right? I have done it before, in fact it's the forum recommended method for the idler arm. Plan A is my favourite, but I suspect mandula tried that first and it failed.

AAAAH Now I understand what he means. Smash the hole from both sides with a hammer, or hold one hammer on the other side. Used that before, kinda hard to do if you are working on ground but easy on a lift.

I do all of my work in the street. And I've not used any other method for years, including changing suspension arms on 40 year old cars that had never been apart before. The only reason not to use this method is if the components are made of aluminium.

[Bigron]

If it helps, look at it this way: the joint is slightly tapered, but holds firmly, so it won't let go easily, especially after it has been in service for a while, so you either prise it out with forked tools, or use the two-hammer method.
The latter means that you put the heaviest hammer that you have room for BEHIND the joint, to act as an immovable object and use the second hammer to bash it F hard to cause the socket to deform and squeeze the pin out - like squeezing spots: not that any of us here ever do that! 

Ron.

[Stige]

You're making this out to be much harder than it is.


Use Plan A, but get your son to do the hitting. It really isn't difficult. You do know that you're striking the socket, and NOT trying to knock the pin out?


A gas torch won't apply enough heat to anything useful. Cutting it apart is just butchery, and takes longer than breaking the balljoint with two hammers.

I am placing the sledge hammer behind the tapered hole in the drop arm while son Ben bashes from the other side, so that the tapered hole in the arm deforms and releases the pin, which drops out, right? I have done it before, in fact it's the forum recommended method for the idler arm. Plan A is my favourite, but I suspect mandula tried that first and it failed.

AAAAH Now I understand what he means. Smash the hole from both sides with a hammer, or hold one hammer on the other side. Used that before, kinda hard to do if you are working on ground but easy on a lift.

I do all of my work in the street. And I've not used any other method for years, including changing suspension arms on 40 year old cars that had never been apart before. The only reason not to use this method is if the components are made of aluminium.

Can you really get enough force on it alone? Or you have an extra set of hands in your garage waiting all the time? 

I assume you use two of these or something similar? Ofcourse with flat heads, not round...

[Nick W]

Can you really get enough force on it alone? Or you have an extra set of hands in your garage waiting all the time? 

I assume you use two of these or something similar? Ofcourse with flat heads, not round...

No garage, drive or any sort off-road parking. Car gets jacked up in the street, and my tools are in the cellar down a flight of steps.


Yes, that sort of club hammer. Mine's about 2kg, which is usually enough.

[Bigron]

Agreed, Nick; 4lb flat-faced club hammer static behind the joint, and maybe 2lb hammer striking it with very sharp blows to shock the bugger out!
Repeat as necessary.....

Ron.

[terry paget]

This is how I finally did it 

Tried to use force to get it off, but finally I was defeated and needed to use some brains (or something like that).
I used angle grinder and small blade to cut it from the ball joint's base, just enough that I could then break that base by hammering where tie rod end is attached. It was really easy job done like that, but only works if you are planning to replace that central rod 

Thank you. You angle grind the end of the tie rod around the ball joint, then hammer it until the ball is released. This still leaves the pin stuck in the taper of the arm from the steering box. You do not say how you remove the pin from the arm, though I imagine you could easily use a lever and screw splitter for this.

Oh yes, I forgot to add that now you can use normal tools to get that pin out, because now there is room to do that.
Tool like this for example

Edit. Yes, I tried everything. But I had no helpers available and car on jacks = limited access. So angle grinder was my last plan. But I think it was best option for that situation and I think if you are going to replace that rod anyway, it does not matter how you do it.

I have one of those tools, but I could not get it into the gap between the bits I wished to separate. Could be that as the joint is so loose the weight of the idler arm end closed it up.Here is my tool:

[mandula]

This is how I finally did it 

Tried to use force to get it off, but finally I was defeated and needed to use some brains (or something like that).
I used angle grinder and small blade to cut it from the ball joint's base, just enough that I could then break that base by hammering where tie rod end is attached. It was really easy job done like that, but only works if you are planning to replace that central rod 

Thank you. You angle grind the end of the tie rod around the ball joint, then hammer it until the ball is released. This still leaves the pin stuck in the taper of the arm from the steering box. You do not say how you remove the pin from the arm, though I imagine you could easily use a lever and screw splitter for this.

Oh yes, I forgot to add that now you can use normal tools to get that pin out, because now there is room to do that.
Tool like this for example

Edit. Yes, I tried everything. But I had no helpers available and car on jacks = limited access. So angle grinder was my last plan. But I think it was best option for that situation and I think if you are going to replace that rod anyway, it does not matter how you do it.

I have one of those tools, but I could not get it into the gap between the bits I wished to separate. Could be that as the joint is so loose the weight of the idler arm end closed it up.Here is my tool:

If you cannot hammer it off the usual way, it is a 5 minutes job to angle grind that ball joint base and hammer that off. Now you have all the access to arm with that pin inside it. Now you can hammer it off or use that tool.

Just imagine how easy job it would be if there were not that rod on your way limiting your working space 

[Nick W]

I have one of those tools, but I could not get it into the gap between the bits I wished to separate. Could be that as the joint is so loose the weight of the idler arm end closed it up.Here is my tool:

I've seen one of those cranked up so tight that it bent without releasing the joint. Two solid blows with a club hammer popped it apart. Mine is currently in a friend's garage, along with the one with a screw that pushes down on the pin and a couple of the fork types. He was understandably anxious about beating on the aluminium uprights of his Porsche without trying the 'proper' tools first.

[terry paget]

After 4 clouts the pin meekly dropped out. Magic! I thank you for your wisdom, Nick, and your confident advice.