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Thu Nov 20, 2008 11:48 am

I'm in the process of disassembling my front end to replace the ball joints. One of the lower ball joint nuts (27mm) will not come off because the stem/bolt is turning in the steering knuckle. Perhaps I should have done a better job cleaning up the threads? In any event, it did start to come off and then stopped. Any advice on how to deal with this? Hack saw? I am concerned about damaging the knuckle. Thanks.

Thu Nov 20, 2008 11:52 am

Do you have acces to an air wrench? Sometime the quick impact of that will let it turn loose. Otherwise...hacksaw carefully.

Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:09 pm

hacksaw will take a month of sundays. balljoints are hard steel. clamp down on the balljoint to force it into the knuckle. if that fails, then use a cutoff wheel in an angle grinder. you can split the nut itself first with the grinder and remove that to give yourself more room to get at the stub of the balljoint, then zip that off.

Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:24 pm

Will a 4-inch C clamp suffice? Right now I am letting the nut and surrounding threads soak in penetrant. Also if I can split the nut with an angle grinder won't that solve my problem, i.e., why would I have to then cut off the stub? Thanks for your quick replies.

Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:43 pm

When I run into this problem I just grab my nut splitter and just crack the nut usually it will just unscrew by hand after it cracked.

Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:26 pm

A 1/2 impact gun usually works. I lived a long time without one and now I don't think I could do without it.

Thu Nov 20, 2008 6:24 pm

Can you use a jack to press the knuckle back so it secures the bolt/shaft and allows you to turn the nut again while the steering knuckle holds the shaft. If you are turning everything then the two are separated. Try to press the two back together so the shaft does not turn. just enough to hold the shaft and not press the two tight. I very little amount of propane heat might help with a wet rag to keep the shaft cool.

Thu Nov 20, 2008 7:10 pm

Try tightening the nut again, real tight. If the taper will lock up then clean the threads and try backing it off again.

Thu Nov 20, 2008 8:33 pm

Thanks for the input. I do not think there is a reasonably priced nut splitter that will handle a 27mm nut? I'll get back to it tomorrow and give your advice a whirl. May have to fire up the garage heater as it is suppose to get down to 7 tonight.

Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:25 pm

atmellovw wrote: Thanks for the input. I do not think there is a reasonably priced nut splitter that will handle a 27mm nut? I'll get back to it tomorrow and give your advice a whirl. May have to fire up the garage heater as it is suppose to get down to 7 tonight.

I have had good luck with just getting a visegrip on the ball joint above the knuckle. You need to jack up the steering knuckle at the tie rod extension (common sense helps) to get the angle between the torsion arm and the steering knuckle more manageable.
Colin
(some ball joints have a little flattened end at the end of the threads on the ball joint that you can grab hard with a visegrip as you loosen the nut)

Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:30 pm

All have good solutions... Any way you go about it, it's a pain in the a$$...

Thu Nov 20, 2008 11:01 pm

Thanks Colin, two great ideas. The bolt does have the squared end. As for it being a pain in the a$$, it all depends on how you look at it. I know that bolt is going to come off one way or another and when it does, I will do my end zone dance.

Thu Nov 20, 2008 11:07 pm

Good luck...

Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:25 am

End zone dance complete! I spent an hour on this problem this morning. The first 58 minutes monkeying with vice grips, clamps, jack, and wrench and the last 2 minutes with my reciprocating saw with metal cutting blade.

After cleaning up the threads at the end of the bolt, I could see that they were marred and that bolt would never have gone over them. Thanks again for your support.

Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:29 am

Where is the picture of torn knuckles? Blood and more blood. lol.

Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:49 am

When all else fails, cut that bitch off!!!

Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:16 am

My sister bought that saw for my dad back in 2003. He never used it so he insisted (you know how parents can be!) that I take it. Never used it until this morning. I should call and thank him.

I find that bleeding is pretty well controlled by old dried up grease and road grime all over my hands.

Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:23 am

Yep... Nothing like 40 yr old grease to stop the bleeding...

I use my saw rather frequently... But I work on more than just Vw's.. :wink:

Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:45 am

atmellovw wrote: My sister bought that saw for my dad back in 2003. He never used it so he insisted (you know how parents can be!) that I take it. Never used it until this morning. I should call and thank him.

I find that bleeding is pretty well controlled by old dried up grease and road grime all over my hands.

I thought you were going to say your dad re gifted it and gave it to you.

Fri Nov 21, 2008 1:15 pm

1975 Kombi wrote: I thought you were going to say your dad re gifted it and gave it to you.

That is something he would do, just not in this case. :D