Thanks for the tips Ken. I had little probs with the allen bolts, but
that tapered ball joint was stuck as I have ever seen one.

heating the steering knuckle was a second to last resort... last
resort was drilling it out! ha, see how crazy I was getting?

Damn you and your air powered pickle fork :)

alistair

On 3-Dec-09, at 4:06 AM, Ken Wilford wrote:

I have two tricks for upper ball joints that make them much easier
and less stress to remove.  The first is heat.  Use a torch on the
big allen head bolts on the top side and head up around them for
about 30 seconds each.  If they are still stuck do it again.  They
should get to the point where they come out easily.  As for popping
the tapered end out of the front upright you use what is called a
"pickle fork" however a special one that can mount onto an air gun
will make you smile.  Put the air powered pickle fork against the
joint, say the magic word, and presto it pops off in a few seconds
with little to no effort.  Before this I would beat my brains out
with a normal fork and hammer.  Now it is like magic with almost no
effort.
HTH,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com

Alistair Bell wrote:
> did one upper ball joint today. I was all set to have a nice time,
> and take pictures to document what I thought would be an easy job.
> Turned out to be a bear, tapered joint would not pop out they way "it
> should".
>
> "details" here:  http://shufti.wordpress.com/
>
>
> I also took a quick picture of my modified Jackall, high lift style
> jack. I welded on a it of the stock jack to some box section steel
> and that is bolted on the Jackall's lift part.
>
> Alistair
>
> '86 syncro 7  passenger
> '82 westy, diesel converted to gas in '94
> http://www.members.shaw.ca/albell/
> http://shufti.wordpress.com
>