Is there a trick to getting the castle nut off the lower ball joint post? It was loosening and then now something must be spinning as its being removed. I don't see the actual ball joint turning but the nut is not moving any further off the post. I put a jack under the arm and ball joint to relieve the weight but the nut isn't coming off. Its starting to round itself so I am tempted to start attempting to just cut the dam thing off. I soaked it in wd40 to assist & have air available but no dice. I've replaced the lower ball joint on a Honda before which is basically the same although on a Honda its facing opposite direction and the castle nut is at the bottom instead of the top. But i did not run into this issue

Thoughts?

-Removed the wheel
-Removed the cotter pin from the castle nut
-Removed the snap ring from bottom of lower ball joint

Now attempting to remove the castle nut so I can begin pressing the old ball joint out.

 

Your ball joint is well worn. Try to grab it with some vice grips over the boot.

 

Thanks. Unfortunately I got a late start on this today so I just threw it back together so I can drive it to work. I'll be out of sun light in an hour and my project car is consuming the entire garage at the moment.

I'm gonna just take a vac day this week and knock it out. I refuse to pay $350+ for something I can do myself. That cash would cover new struts I want.

I have a slip over but extracter kit I can use. I tried vice gripping over the boot earlier and the nut started rounding out. At this point I'll just need to hack the nut off its just going to be a pain in the *** because it's location. The nut sides recessed inside the collar just a tad so I can't just easily cut it off. I wish the oem nut was a castle nut style it would make it much easier.

The car is from Chicago so just about every nut or bolt under the car has been a royal pain in my *** to remove. I usually pre soak them the night before in additives to assist with the removal.

 

Ah, I see. I'm in CA, so I never have those problems. You could always dremel the but off sideways room the ball joints I got had different-than-stock sized castle nuts anyhow, so they're useless afterward anyhow.

 

Dremel the sides of the nut carefully and then unfold the nut from the threads. I had do that when replacing the shocks.

 

edit:will make new thread

 

I know this is an old thread but I would like to offer advice that gave me success with ball joint removal.

If the ball joint is bad, and the housing is ripped and shreaded, I found success by using vice grips to hold on to the metal bolt in the housing. So when you loosen the nut it doesnt spin with the bolt.

If the ball joint is still good, you can do the same thing with the top of the bolt. Once the nut gets too high to vice grip. I then got the stock floor jack and compressed it up under the ball joint causing every thing to raise. It then allowed me to take off the nut with out the bolt endlessly spinning.

I did this because when I first installed ball joints I forgot to replace the OEM Cone that you must re install after removing the old ball joints. So I ran into this problem twice on my car from both sides.

Also you can use the ball joint kit from Autozone to press the OEM cone onto the new call joint so it fits into the control arm easier.

I am not a specialist, Just a family man who needs to work on his own car to save money. Hope this helps.

Dont forget to remove cotter pins and retaining clips for people pressing out ball joints for the first time.