Upper Ball Joint Puller?

[Scott19_72]

Hi! September 23rd (tomorrow) is my 72 Challenger & my 14th anniversary... For that special occasion, I've finally gotten around to the disc brake swap I've been planning for kind of a while (10ish years...). I'm using the parts from the front end of a 73 Satellite and so far things are going well. This forum has really given me an edge on what parts to order and how to proceed!

My question: How in the heck are you guys separating the upper ball joints from your spindles!? I remember beating on the Satellite (with a pickle-fork type tool) for around 3 hours to harvest the disc spindles in the junk yard almost a decade ago. I just figured it was because that car was a rotting pile in a yard. BUT I'm amazed at how hard it still was to get them off of my (comparably very clean, rust free) challenger in the last few days! Below are pics of the best way I could figure out, combined with heating/WD40ing and beating directly on the old spindle with a hammer. I can't seem to find any posts about this, but its been VERY difficult/ frustrating for me (and damaged some parts!). What does everyone else on here know that I don't? :confused5:

Thanks!

 

[moparleo]

Use a bigger hammer. Seriously. Use a 3-5 lb. sledge. Very inexpensive if you have a Harbor Freight store locally. Don't worry about being gentle. Just make sure you use gloves and good safety gogles.

 

[Scott19_72]

Use a bigger hammer. Seriously. Use a 3-5 lb. sledge. Very inexpensive if you have a Harbor Freight store locally. Don't worry about being gentle. Just make sure you use gloves and good safety gogles.

I definitely will then next time it comes down to it! Hopefully I'll have the new ones on there for a while. There's no special Chrysler only puller or anything though?

 

[Scott19_72]

Oh, and looks like I was off by a day (23rd is Sunday) - Cupcake & 100 octane tomorrow!

 

[moparleo]

Kill it

:naka:The balljoint is tapered as is the spindle hole. If the joint has been there for a while, it can be very hard to get loose. It is easier to do when you still have tension on the balljoint. If you can reattach the spindle to the lower control arm and put some tension back on it with the torsion bar adjusted just enough to put tension on the joint. Then put on the goggles and get out your big hammer, put an x on the spindle where you are going to strike it and let it all hang out. Kill that x on the spindle and it WILL pop loose !:naka::violent1:

 

[moparleo]

The only special ball joint tool for a Mopar is for the top of the balljoint where it screws into the arm.