Honda Car Forum

A portion of the previous post is possibly misleading... the hub and backing
plate have to be removed from the steering knuckle before the ball joint can
be removed. You use an E14 internal star socket for that with an air
wrench. Then flip the knuckle over, swap the E14 for a 14mm regular socket
and get the bolts on the front of the hub.

Now take a tire tool or something similar and go down between the backing
plate and the knuckle and pry them apart. The backing plate is attached to
the knuckle with three Phillip's head screws and they are tight. Presoak
them with WD40 or similar and use the biggest Phillip's screwdriver you
have. Once that's done, you can get at the ball joint pretty easily. Auto
Zone rents a press for removing/installing ball joints, and we found that it
works better installing them than removing them on this particular model
car. We used a two-arm puller to get the joint out of the knuckle.

With the old joint out, put the new one in using the press. Then it's just
a matter of putting it all back together.

prvtlewis

Make that "between the rotor/hub and the backing plate with a pry bar"

"nospam" <nospam@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:UoQng.1478$NP4.1412@newsread1.news.pas.earthl ink.net...
>A portion of the previous post is possibly misleading... the hub and
>backing plate have to be removed from the steering knuckle before the ball
>joint can be removed. You use an E14 internal star socket for that with an
>air wrench. Then flip the knuckle over, swap the E14 for a 14mm regular
>socket and get the bolts on the front of the hub.
>
> Now take a tire tool or something similar and go down between the backing
> plate and the knuckle and pry them apart. The backing plate is attached
> to the knuckle with three Phillip's head screws and they are tight.
> Presoak them with WD40 or similar and use the biggest Phillip's
> screwdriver you have. Once that's done, you can get at the ball joint
> pretty easily. Auto Zone rents a press for removing/installing ball
> joints, and we found that it works better installing them than removing
> them on this particular model car. We used a two-arm puller to get the
> joint out of the knuckle.
>
> With the old joint out, put the new one in using the press. Then it's
> just a matter of putting it all back together.
>
> prvtlewis
>

Make that "between the backing plate and the hub/rotor"... sorry.

"nospam" <nospam@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:UoQng.1478$NP4.1412@newsread1.news.pas.earthl ink.net...
>A portion of the previous post is possibly misleading... the hub and
>backing plate have to be removed from the steering knuckle before the ball
>joint can be removed. You use an E14 internal star socket for that with an
>air wrench. Then flip the knuckle over, swap the E14 for a 14mm regular
>socket and get the bolts on the front of the hub.
>
> Now take a tire tool or something similar and go down between the backing
> plate and the knuckle and pry them apart. The backing plate is attached
> to the knuckle with three Phillip's head screws and they are tight.
> Presoak them with WD40 or similar and use the biggest Phillip's
> screwdriver you have. Once that's done, you can get at the ball joint
> pretty easily. Auto Zone rents a press for removing/installing ball
> joints, and we found that it works better installing them than removing
> them on this particular model car. We used a two-arm puller to get the
> joint out of the knuckle.
>
> With the old joint out, put the new one in using the press. Then it's
> just a matter of putting it all back together.
>
> prvtlewis
>