As an addition to Richard Jackson's post...
>Just last night I swapped my Front left verticle link(as it was bent), so I
had
>to swap the top ball joint. I have NO ball joint splitter except for my
trusty
>little hammer, so I clouted the sides of the verticle link through which the
>ball joint bolts, and out it popped, easy as that.
A friend in the local frame and alignment shop told me with this trick many
years ago when I was struggling to remove tie rod ends while doing a king pin
job on my wife's MG Midget...
To separate tapered bolted assemblies: Loosen the lock nut several turns (If
you take it off, everythiing may fall apart when you don't want it to). Take
a large anvil or other HEAVY piece of steel to back up the knuckle, etc.
through which the tapered bolt passes. With a heavy hammer, hit the opposite
side of the (knuckle, etc.) assembly several blows -- so that the shock
passes through (ACROSS) the bolt. Note that this is at right angles to the
axis of the tapered bolt -- not the direction that one would normally expect
to have to hit to push the bolt out. What you're doing is jarring the
tapered portion a bit to loosen it ever so slightly -- that's all it takes.
I've never had this trick fail, and never did any damage to any components.
Good Luck
-Karl
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