Removing front uprights

Tom W

Active Member
I’m painting the front uprights to remove surface corrosion and generally tidy things up. So far, I’ve done all this with the uprights on the car, but it strikes me I can do a better job with the uprights on the bench. Is it possible to split the balljoint tapers with conventional ball joint tools, rather than the bespoke tools that are shown in the workshop manual?
 
Difficult but possible. Sometimes, with the top joint, if you creep up when it's not looking and give it a clump with a hefty hammer, it will drop out of the taper with shock.....

The lower one is more difficult, as although you still have the element of surprise, you don't have the help of gravity..
 
On the lower, I've had success by stripping off the brake assembly so I can strike the lower arm directly on its end.

Yours
Vern
 
The brakes, hubs and backplates are removed at the moment. Maybe this is best left assembled as is this time? I don’t want to damage the balljoints, as they don’t need replacing yet, so don’t want to be striking on the ball pin itself. I’ve only had mixed results in removing tapers before by striking on the side of the housing.

Regards, Tom
 
You don’t want to be hitting the pins. You want to use a lump hammer on the side of the eye of the control arm. The shock and deformation you get from the impact can loosen the pin from the taper. Just reread your post. I find a second hammer held against the other side helps a lot.

Edit: at around 35 seconds on this video
 
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I have always had success with 2 lump hammers, hitting the joint from both sides, simultaneously.
using the fork tool always damages the boot, every time.
I recently bought a joint separator tool, made just for that job, slide gently into joint, maybe with a small tap from a hammer,
apply pressure to the joint via the large screw bolt, then a sharp tap with hammer and joint falls apart. :)

Universal Ball Joint Separator Puller Spindle Remover 19mm Fork 48mm Open | eBay
 
I have one of those style ball joint splitters already. I much prefer it to the pickle fork style. I’m not sure it will work on the P6 though, the gaitors go down all the way to the arms, so there nowhere to slide the forks in around the pin. Have you used it successfully on the P6?
 
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