Doing my axle and my lower ball joint WILL NOT SEPARATE from my hub. I've hit it with a bmf , Heat and lube..IT WONT RELEASE !!!!
am I missing something or what's the trick ? Modmini just took off the 2x bolts and 1x whack it was loose , I been at mine an hour now and nothing.

 

Do you have a ball joint separator? Pickle fork can also work, but ball joint separator is a better bet.

You can get a cheap one at harbor freight. I bought one years ago when I was replacing struts on my R53 because the driver's side ball joint just wouldn't come loose. The passenger side came off with a pickle fork without too much effort.

 

Omg I fiiiiiiiiiiiiinally got it.. that balljoint really was siezed in there so I'm gonna replace it too as it feel a little grindy.. the new axle was wrong too of course but thankfully I could just reuse my old input shaft and carrier bearing. So atleast the axle is now pretty much a rebuilt stock axle so that's better anyways. I just gotta go get a new balljoint and it will be put back together.

 

I was attempting to either get the balljoint put of the control arm and I tried unbolting the 2x bolts to have to stay connected to the control arm and drop down top and that method finally worked after ALOT of persuasion.. I had to get a chizzle and hammer it down onto the lip of the balljoint working from side to side AFTER heating the crap out of the surrounding and it finally wiggled on out..ugh .
I try npt to use a picklebar either unless i have a new balljoint on hand and i unfortunately didnt but now that im just replacing it anyways yea , picklebar for sure wpulda made it smoother.

 

Some antiseize when you install the new ball joint (where it mates with the steering knuckle) may make it easier to remove next time.

 

Good idea ! , i will also put some in the sleeve too that it goes into..lol i hope my lower control arms fine now after how hard and many times i bashed it..lol i even pulled out my lead hammer on it...
now I wanna go replace the 3x other lower balljoints too..
those and my control arm bushings are only suspension pieces i haven't replaced yet actually..lololol i thought the balljoints had to be drilled out of the control arms, i was wrongy informed one time and just NEVER bothered to even really look at them other than inspecting the boots durring other jobs.
maybe ille just get new lower control arms with the new bushings already installed and then install new balljoints ibto those , then I won't have to worry about whacking,heating and hitting each for a stupid long time..haha I may be 36 only but my body is starting to age muuuuuuch faster than my mind and hahaha my arms n wrists are sore from that battle yesterday with that balljoint , I SURE don't wanna do it 3x more times...
Maybe in my ads I have up ille add that I'd he willing to trade for the suspension parts i need then. Maybe someone has extras on their shelf and would rather have a sweet shift light or some other goodies I have up..

 

WHOAAAAAA !!!! Rite as I was finishing cleaning up getting ready for a test drive I took the other 2x parts of axle left over and idk why but I just tried piecing them together and omg the bearing ARE larger on my old axle so therefor it had a larger input shaft housing FOR those bearings. They were literally like 2mm bigger IF THAT but nonetheless bigger and it did not go together. Soooooo if tgat was too large to fit that meant the new axle I put into my old input shaft will have too much clearance around the bearings and it would probably self destruct in NO TIME.. SOOOOOOOO I just removed the new half of the axle, put it back together, boxed it up and will be shipping it back.
very frustrating getting incorrectly labeled parts and NOT reading theyre wrong until install comes.. and of course I can't compare them until I have the old one out most of the time..lol o well. If not fir bad luck I'd have no luck..

 

This... I have ball joint seperator at work, but none at home. I rarely use it on most cars I work on (Toyota) as I just Tonya Harding them out. But fancy stuff like Lexus with aluminum parts is really not advised to do that. The only thing is that it's one of those tools that can be nerve-racking. Crank it up, tappy tap tap, nothing? Crank it a bit more, tappy tap tap. BANG! It was on the left side after hitting it a couple times, went to grab something and then it let go without warning. But it works and it doesn't damage anything!!

 

glad to see you got the ball joints. sometimes they can be the kind of thing you just have to hold your nose right. otherwise you just keep chipping away at it until you work it loose. i've used ball joint presses, pick forks, the BFH, heat, jacks, whatever it takes.

on the CV axle...that's not the kind of thing i like to buy online if avoidable. i'll look for one with a lifetime warranty. i don't want to mail in warranty exchanges because you either have down time while shipping / receiving or you have to temporarily buy a second one, swap, and return for a refund. plus, if you run into problems, you're delayed again. maybe something to consider for next time. also, most napa stores do a 20% off every 2nd saturday. advance, autozone, and oreilly all offer some sort of online purchase discounts. and if you're lucky like me, summit racing is 30 minutes away from me, too.

online places like rock auto are great for things i won't ever return or exchange.