[Essa]

Hey there,

Hope this post is in the correct section of the sub fourm.

I just did a clutch on my brothers car,  first time doing it but in the process I manged to tear/ cut the outer  rubber seal on the ball joint using the separator  fork (.

I need advise and suggestion and which  tools to use on how to remove the lower arm ball joint  which is attaches  via 50mm nut to the knuckle.

Il post some picture soon.

[Dazzler]

Wow! It is easy to see you are in the UK or somewhere else that salts the roads.. we don't see underbody corrosion like that in Australia.   

[Essa]

That's just my drive way,  its parrtly stone flagged and partly  rendered with little stone chippings in cement I guess. Scraped and brushed  my back shoulders blends while  doing the clutch.

[Dazzler]

That's just my drive way,  its parrtly stone flagged and partly  rendered with little stone chippings in cement I guess. Scraped and brushed  my back shoulders blends while  doing the clutch.

Oh, I wasn't talking about the ground I was talking about how much rust on the suspension components.

[Essa]

Haha mis read your last comment 

[BrendanP]

I bought a 50mm box spanner but it wouldn't shift it. Where I work we have a guy in the next unit that does bodywork and general repairs so I got him to change it. He had to buy a 50mm impact socket and he said it was really tight, there's no way it would have come off without a heavy duty impact wrench. Nothing wrong with the joint apart from the boot being torn.

I replaced with a generic part from Euro car parts, when the boot split again 12 months later I bought an identical part, took the boot off it and used that to replace the damaged one. The design allowed the boot to be replaced without having to remove the ball joint.

When separating the ball joint, I had to jack up the suspension arm a bit to make enough room to get the fingers of the ball joint separator in far enough. I used the type with a jack screw to lever the ball joint off the suspension arm. If you use the wedge type that you just hammer into the gap it's almost certain you'll rip the boot.

[Essa]

Would you happen to know which 50mm socket it was, I went to a local shop, they had a 50mm deep impact socket but i don't think it  was deep to get the impact wrench on to the back of it because of the threaded screw.

I tried  using adjustable pipe wrench but it keeps sleping  off the nut, was thinking to cut the ball joint long thread off to get the socket on the nut with some heat but if that doesn't work the car going to be stuck with the driveway.

Cars not Insured  or taxed so cant take to the garage.

[BrendanP]

I'll ask him the next time I see him. I know he had to wait a few days to have it delivered and it was pretty expensive. Finding one deep enough was the hard bit.

[Essa]

Thanks mate il keep checking for your post, or anybody knows they could chip in.

[BrendanP]

Here's a photo of the socket used, the guy said it was about £30 from ebay. It's 3/4" drive so he had to get an adapter as well so it could fit in his 1/2" air impact wrench.

[Essa]

Cheers mate found the Socket. Just before I order the socket. Did the guy have to cut the thread or did he mange slep it  over the long thread on to the bolt leaving enough space to get the adapter 1/2 drive to fit on to the socket?

[BrendanP]

I'm not sure, but he would have used the same socket to install the new ball joint and that wouldn't be cut short. The socket looks fairly deep in the flesh.