control arm nut completely rusted on knuckle

[johnwc723]

i have been for the past couple days trying desperatly to get this nut off the knuckle which includes spraying PB blaster on it, cranking on the ball bearing side with a plumbers wrench, and even heating the object with a propane torch and pounding on it alot, anyone have any ideas here

the nut is actually compeltely rusted onto the surface of the knuckle and even after all thsi i cant make any distinction between the two parts, the ball joint is rediclously stripped because of the cranking i have done on it

i was thinking of getting an oxy mapp torch and trying it on it?

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid115/paefc09c9d14d98d3071230af09a28f5c/f8c8cdd2.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid115/p8238d0b70883b7bc4f552f03206294ed/f8c8cdd3.jpg

[kruddler]

Get a deep socket and slip it over the rounded off ball part of the joint allowing enough room for the joint to be preesed out. Put in a vise, with the treaded side against one of the vise jaws. Crank the vise and the joint should be able to be pressed out.

[Gregg86DX]

I think the nut will prevent him from pressing it out. I would try the MAPP torch, they get much hotter than propane. Heat it until you just see the nut glowing dull red. Then see if it breaks loose, that usually works for me. Is the nut stripped? or is it just that you can't get keep it from spinning the whole shaft? If you can still get a socket on the nut, an impact wrench would work better.

I guess your project is taking a bit longer than 30 minutes :)

Gregg

[johnwc723]

yeah i took off the other one easily but thsi one sucks, the socket dosent even exist on the other side... i think im going to try to dremel off the nut and grind the metal until they are flush with the surface of the knuckle and then use a puller to push it out, it willl talk a freaking long time but then i don thave to buy a mapp torch which may not work even
thanks for the help guys ill let ya know if it works

EVERYONE CHECK YOUR COVERS ON YOUR UPPER CONTROL ARMS, IF ITS GOT A HOLE REPLACE IT OR ELSE YOU WILL SPEND 12 HOURS TRYING TO GET IT OFF!!

[kruddler]

I guess then I would do it the hard way. I would completely remove the lower arm and cut off the threaded portion slightly. Use a sharp center punch and dent the middle of the stud. Get my drill and start drilling gradually going to larger diameters until the nut broke off. With cars this old, your most important tools seem to be Sawzall, Drill and hammer.

[Gregg86DX]

yeah i took off the other one easily but thsi one sucks, the socket dosent even exist on the other side... i think im going to try to dremel off the nut and grind the metal until they are flush with the surface of the knuckle and then use a puller to push it out, it willl talk a freaking long time but then i don thave to buy a mapp torch which may not work even
thanks for the help guys ill let ya know if it works

EVERYONE CHECK YOUR COVERS ON YOUR UPPER CONTROL ARMS, IF ITS GOT A HOLE REPLACE IT OR ELSE YOU WILL SPEND 12 HOURS TRYING TO GET IT OFF!!

If you dremel one side of the nut enough, you should be able to use a hammer and chisel to crack it off. Then you should be able to just press whats left of the joint out.

Sorry this is sucking so bad. It always seems that the easiest jobs are the ones that can kill a whole weekend. :(

[Whitehonda]

Buy a whole new control arm...it will save a shit ton of work. I replaced mine a few months back.

Cameron

[Gregg86DX]

Buy a whole new control arm...it will save a shit ton of work. I replaced mine a few months back.

Cameron

He still has to get the old ball joint out of the knuckle before he can install a new arm. It's supposed to be easy, but he's run into a problem with a stuck nut :(

[johnwc723]

yeah well heres the deal, really ghetto, i ground down the nut completely to the metal (using DREMEL CUTTER), and the ball joint side actually sheared off when i was cranking it. i have gone through 2 different pullers now breaking both of them (granted one was $4 and the other $6) trying to push the mother fucker out (i have spent at least 8 hours on this piece) now im thinking of just drilling through it (even tho its chamfered) maybe that will losten the rust and allow the thing to get out? i was also thinking oxy mapp again... tried pounding on it already with a hammer once the nut was off too, nothing seems to work

[MrBen]

Well if all else fails you can get a new knuckle. I had one I could've given you but I threw it out a while ago. Just an FYI, the knuckle cost me 7 bucks at the Pull-a-Part and a half hour of removal time.

[johnwc723]

well the really hard part is the freakin spring on there i would have to de tension it on my car.... well anways can anyone think of any other way to get the SOB out

[Vinny]

I agree with Ben. I was going to post the same thing 2 days ago and got busy here at work. For all the time you already spent you could have replaced the knuckle

[johnwc723]

well thank you OXY-MAPP torch i heated the mother with it till it was melting near the end of the torch and let it cool again and applied the puller on to it and it came out no problem, now my car is all fixed holy crap taht job was soo easy after i got that out

the torch is probably a good thing to have aroudn bought the set for $38 OXY-MAPP benzomatic and got some goggles for UV for $4 if you have a stubborn bolt i would suggest trying one!

(its fun to burn stuff too :) )