Lower ball joint question

[MusicMan70]

Hey Folks...embarking on rebuilding the front end of my 1970 GMC truck, power drums, using the standard front end kit from PST....some questions please;

1- Can I leave the drum attached to the spindle?

2- Is this the proper tool to use to separate the ball joints
and placement? I've been banging on it and no separation yet.

3- I have the jack under the a-arm and PB blasted the ball joints as well as
safety-cabled the coil spring to the lower a-arm. What else?


Thanks in advance for any/all responses and suggestions, Henry

[BMERDOC]

Everything looks good. Throw that pickle fork in the trash! I am not there to coach you so its gonna be hard to tell you. I want you to smack the F outta the spindle at the lower joint. Grab the biggest hammer you can (find one), make sure you aint gonna hit anything else and swing!! I want you to hit it once like youve never hit anything in your life so you only mar the spindle once and not mess it up. It will come loose if you ring its bell. Make sure all of the safety precautions you've used are only there to catch your work and are not in the way. Swing once and make it count. Your jack and cable will catch it and you'll have nothing to worry about.

[lilpoindexter]

Yep...do a babe ruth on the spindle, adjacent to where the stud pokes through.
I use a pickle fork attachment on an air hammer, and just plug on it til it pops.

[MusicMan70]

Great....It's Hammer time! I'll go to the "Mighty Thor" section at Lowe's and get one...
Thanks Nick and PDexter

[67c10rustbuket]

1 - Yes leave the drum attached to the spindle, If you are reusing the brake lines tie a string or bungee cord around the upper arm to the frame so you don't stretch the rubber brake line.

2 - Yes the pickle fork works (as long as you not planning to reuse the ball joints, they destroy the boots) your placement is a little off and make sure you loosen the ball joint nuts 1/4" or so , so it can actually separate. the fork needs to get in on either side of the base of the ball joint. or you can just loosen the nut on the ball joint until it is just above the top of the ball joint stud and give it a "thor" whack with a hammer to the top of the joint by hitting the nut, if you remove the nut and bang it out you could get injured by the spring shooting out of the pocket.

3 - you need to remove the jack from under the c-arm so it can drop when the ball joint separates. the jack is keeping the ball joint pressed in no matter how hard you beat on it the jack is holding the lower arm in place.

4 - yes I added number 4... once you have separated the lower do not remove the nut until you do the same to the upper ball joint. the tension from the coil spring is your friend when separating ball joints. without the spring in place you'll be beating on a sloppy suspension. in other words separate both upper and lower before removing the nuts and yanking the spring out...

good luck and happy times with the thor hammer

[fastwillie 696969]

that castle nut looks like it need to be loosen on the lower ball joint

[LONGHAIR]

I'm with BEMERDOC, throw that picklefork away, they just destroy things.
Second, DO NOT hit the castle nut. It has the potential to ruin the threads, which makes the nut harder to get off of the stud, if it even does come loose, and at minimum it can deform the nut, making it harder to wrench.

You really need to hit the spindle itself right next to the stud. It sounds funny to hit it horizontally when you want the joint to come out vertically, but it works.
Personally, if I was replacing everything, I would take the drums apart too. This makes it easy to remove the steering link that is in the way of getting a good hit on the lower ball joint. Why avoid the outer parts to get to the inner stuff? Drums on the front should be inspected at every opportunity anyway.
Keep them clean, adjusted, and in good condition for safe, straight stops.

[MusicMan70]

Thanks for the other responses(Buket, Willie, LngHair)...I just did a brake job fairly recently and so I really didn't want to take them apart again unless It was necessary. I will incorporate all this advise....Thumbs Up to All that responded!c