Thrust Arms: I give up....
Ok, I give up, the control and thrust arms are impossible to seperate from the steering knuckle. I'm just going to buy a new steering knucle and throw the entire assembly away.
I started to just remove the bushing bolts and steering knuckle- per Bill R's Method until i realized i had no room on jack stands to work on anyhting.. so i removed the strurt housing/rotors on each side.. took brake callipers off.. removed the entire sway bar/links... finally got the steering tie rods seperated.
and here i am, pounding the balljoints with a sledge hammer getting absolutely no where. I bent a massive bolt on a tie-rod seperator when i tried using that.... How were these put together? i'm starting to think they welded them on my car and just not everyone elses.
Did you unbolt the thrust arm and control arm assy from the
frame and set them on something solid like I posted before at this link
If so it will just pop off without even hitting it that hard. If you're trying to wack it on the car its a lot harder because there's no way to support the assy rigidly so your hammer to can work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by infinity5
Ok, I give up, the control and thrust arms are impossible to seperate from the steering knuckle. I'm just going to buy a new steering knucle and throw the entire assembly away.
I started to just remove the bushing bolts and steering knuckle- per Bill R's Method until i realized i had no room on jack stands to work on anyhting.. so i removed the strurt housing/rotors on each side.. took brake callipers off.. removed the entire sway bar/links... finally got the steering tie rods seperated.
and here i am, pounding the balljoints with a sledge hammer getting absolutely no where. I bent a massive bolt on a tie-rod seperator when i tried using that.... How were these put together? i'm starting to think they welded them on my car and just not everyone elses.
Rather than pay a shop to grind down the wrench go
buy a 4 inch angle grinder from harbor freight for 14.99 , probably less than you'd pay to have it ground and grind the sides off to this dimensionhttp://www.bimmernut.com/%7Ebillr/images/22mmmodify.jpg
Quote:
Originally Posted by infinity5
Yes bill, i had the steering knucle supported on bricks and was wacking the balljoints with a hammer... Mine were just in tighter than the average bear.
I finally gave up and took it to a shop and had them do it. $20 and 20minutes of pounding (or whatever they did) got them all out. I wish I had done this days ago!
Anyway, now its time to put everything back together. I still don't know how i'm going to hold the Thrustarm brushing nuts still... I'll just go get my wrench ground down at a shop somewhere.
Since the balljoints turn when i try to tighten the nut, i have to use a big clap and hold the top side of the ball joint against the steering plate to keep it still, correct?
