I am trying to remove the passenger side ball joint. I have the three nuts removed from the Control arm (damn things were tightened by Dolf Lundgren himself!!). Anyhow, how in the world do I free the ball joint? I hear I can use a vise to remove the ball joint from the mount, is this true? I don't have that special toll for removing it. I have the other 4 screws loose also. The car is off the ground....

TIA

SM
90 BMW 325is
98 BMW 528i
90 Volvo 240DL

FInally I got the darn thing out with a little bitta foul language and some hammering. I have it all back together. Do you know how much those 3 nuts should be torqued to? I have it on there pretty tight, I doubt that it will ever come loose.

Thanks
SM
90 BMW 325is
98 BMW 528i
90 Volvo 240DL

According to the Bentley manual:
Three bolts ball joint to control arm ... 85 ft lb
Four bolts strut anchor to strut tube ... 17 ft lb
Ball joint nut to strut anchor... 44 ft lb

Glad you got the job done. Can you notice an improvement in the steering?

so I'm cornfused...is the ball joint still on the car? (IOW have you removed the 4 screws that hold it to the base of the strut tube?)

Once off the car - a vise or clamp will work but it'a PITA, I like to use the ol' impact driver...
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www.fidalgo.net/~brook4

yep....ball join'ts still on the car....the 4 screws are off and the three nuts are off, still the biatch ain't coming off.....

It's just stuck from being in place for so long. With the 4 bolts removed (the ones fastening it to the strut tube), just give the square bolt flange a sideways rap with a hammer.

If the bolt which retains the ball joint itself won't unbolt, just drill out the stud using successively larger drills, then drive it out with a punch.

When I replaced mine, I removed the ball joint from the car which took some tapping and wriggling to get it loose after taking the 4 bolts out of the strut anchor and the 3 bolts out of the control arm, and put the ball joint in a vise so that the ball joint was pushed into the anchor. This keeps the ball joint from turning as you loosen the nut holding it to the anchor. Once the nut comes free, you can remove the ball joint from the vise, take the nut off. Replacement is the reverse. I recall getting the 4 bolts back into the bottom of the strut was tricky. I think I had to get one of them started with the strut anchor loose, then push the anchor up tight and put the other bolts in.