Ok I'm having incredible trouble getting the upper ball joint to let go of the upper contol arm.

I've undone the nut and put a tire lever in between upper control arm and steering knuckle... levered it up and struck the steering knuckle with a hammer (1.25Kg)... but it's simply not budging at all? I mean I've been belting at the bloody thing and it's not doing a thing.

Any suggestions would be greatfully accepted at this point... I'm going to have to replace the upper ball joints anyway as tried striking top of ball joint with nut on reversed and that simply damaged the thread (not bad enough that I can't get the nut off)... and the rubber boots are now badly damaged from attempting to lever.

Buy a ball joint splitting tool.

Whoops should have mentioned that its a Ford EL Falcon... and now I've just read that I'll have to take the entire bloody Steering Knuckle off to do the Upper ball joints... is there any way around this... ??????

Very dissappointing... indeed

take the top arm off and run down to the nearest mechanic and maybe get it pressed out.

Thanks for the Ball Joint Splitter comment... went down and purchased for 16 Bucks ... and boy did it take a fair amount of Whacking... and swearing ... but then sure enough pop out it came...

So the only problem was that I've had to remove the entire steering knuckle so that I can take it down and have the upper ball joints removed... and the new one's pressed in....

Does it ever end with Fords?

And then I've got the sweet job of putting it all back together... still will handle a bit better with Gas Munroe shocks given the LH Strut was absolutely dead......

Would you rather a mcpherson strut setup? I didnt think so.

I cant see you replacing them more than once in your ownership (unless your keeping it forever and doing 50k+ kms a years) so whats the big deal

The new ball joints will make quite a difference to handling too, certainly did with my XR6.

Well It worked a treat the splitter, and managed to get the Steering Knuckle off without stuffing the lower ball joints or tie rod ends... Phew...

Went to get those Upper ball joints pressed ... What I found was that you have to have a SPECIAL Press tool and even FORD don't carry this TOOL ... so fortunately for me Steve from Knoxfield Ford directed me to Pedders in FTG who did the job for me and for a reasonable price given the captive market they must have.

Just left with putting it back together now.. that's going well but am having trouble tightening the Upper ball joints ... can't get it to bite properly because of the lockring on the nut... will have to get a standard nut and pull the ball joint in then take off and replace with locknut....

Jeez...

I'm guessing I'll need a front end alignment after all this... still it'll make a big difference to the handling I think? ...

Next is the oil leak and Transmission leak and holding on to gears instead of shifting up smoothly.... hoping a flush and service (quoted 200 today) will fix these problems...

Oh and then Just got to get the front end pulled out a bit as prior owner had bit of prang and failed to mention .. well hidden... only came to light when I switched the headlights on at night and noticed I was able to go possum spotting.... Yep a small push right on the end of the chassis rail... has damaged the end plate a bit and little bit in around headlight... Hoping that it won't cost a fortune to repair...

And I thought this might be a nice cheap car???

Caveat emptor...




Hehehe, that'll be the day mate! ..There's no such thing..