tangofox007

"Sometimes loading the stud down with a puller and just letting it sit is helpful. Also, striking the eye of the control arm with medium sized hammer (while the stud is heavily loaded) can also break things loose. The idea is not to beat the stud out of the control arm, but to send a "deforming" shock wave through the eye so that it lets go of the stud. Another variation is to strike the eye on opposite sides at the same with a pair of hammers. Strike the eye perpendicular to the stud. (The idea is to deliver a sharp, ringing blow; not necessarily a hard blow.) Repeated strikes are usually required."
In 36 years of fooling with cars I've never owned a stud puller, or tierod breaker, or whatever you call it. Instead I rely entirely on hammering the studs out pretty much exactly as described above. I just loosen the nut (don't take it all the way off, so that the part can't jump too far when it comes loose.) dolly-up the back of the knuckle with a sledge hammer, and hit the front with ringing blows with a good-sized hammer. How good sized? Depends on the size of the knuckle. On a car, maybe 20 oz. to 2 Lbs.
You know you have the dolly located right when it bounces off the part when you strike it the front of the part with your other hammer, and the hammer bounces back too.
The dolly has two objects: 1) it prevents the force of impact from travelling to the next joint, where it may do damage, and 2), much more important, it confines the force of the blow within the part. Think of a wave travelling across a swimming pool, bouncing off the far wall, and coming back to you. The dolly, held tight against the part, is the "far wall" that these waves of force bounce against.
I start with fairly light blows, slowly increasing force until the knuckle pops apart. The force and resonance literally stretches the knuckle for an instant, loosening the stud and allowing it to slip down.
I learned this approach from an old-fashioned blacksmith machinery repair guy. He showed me how on a good anvil, there's enough resonance so that the forging hammer literally bounces back to where you started the swing. The only muscular force that you exert (once you've got the knack) is accelerating the hammer back down again.
Aint physics grand?

Yep. I'd put this procedure right up there with turning water into wine.
If you've done it once, you'll do it again just to see the magic at work.
What is the root of the 'dolly-up' phrase?

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I had one of those Harbor Freight ball joint tools. Talk about crap. The cup didn't quiet fit and prevented the ball joint from coming out. It took bending the C clamp to realize this. My friend and I had to hold the spindle in a vice and pound it out with an old socket and a piece of wood. I cracked the screw putting the new ones in.

In my opinion these things aren't safe.

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green 85 300SD 200K miles "Das Schlepper Frog" With a OM603 TBO360 turbo ( To be intercooled someday )( Kalifornistani emissons )
white 79 300SD 200K'ish miles "Farfegnugen" (RIP - cracked crank)
desert storm primer 63 T-bird "The Undead" (long term hibernation)

http://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/sig692a.png

Here is how you apply force to the union, once the ball joint nut is off.

Hold one five pound sledge against the static side of the lower control arm.

Pound on the opposite side of the lower control arm, reverse hammer positions every ten strokes.

Every stroke needs to apply maximum possible force.

Please click on the attached picture to enlarge, it shows how and where to hit the lower control arm.

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whunter uses the same technique I have always had success with. Never bothered with those clamp removers. The sharp blow to the side distorts the holding taper, breaking the bond, squeezing out the ball joint pin. BIG ball peen; I find a 16 oz fine, but then, I'd love a bigger one!

It may be hard to hit, so seo's idea of using an intermediary piece to ensure perfect strikes makes sense.

If you have to, use the clamp setup, tighten it up nicely, THEN try a few strikes per whunter.

If that does not work, then we are talking acetylene.

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Peter
1985 300TD 4-speed 212K
1992 400E 343K
2001 E320 72K

Holding the sledgehammer opposite the side of the joint I was striking did the trick. It's finally out. This technique required only about 15 minutes - in addition to the many hours already spent trying in vain to pound it out from the top. Thanks to everyone!

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tgingrich
'83 300TD 282k
'83 300D 239k
'82 300SD 204k
DFW

ok you press supporters, think of it like this... if you put enough pressure on the bolt to get it out, the bolt is bound to compress... if it gets shorter, it's gonna get wider, if it gets wider, it aint gonna come out.
the Hammer method will work. SOOOO SIMPLE!...
John

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

I got the tapered ball joint shafts on tie rods and control arms of my MB300SD with a pickle fork. You hammer the wedged pickle fork between the ball joint and the control arm you want to separate. Use a sledge hammer. I used a small sledge. On the upper control arm I hammered it all the way in, but no luck. So I jumped up and down on the end on the pickle fork, and that did it. Sledge, and leverage! It destroys the rubber boots on the joints.

A customer at Sears recommended it, and recommended the larger pickle fork.

:EDIT: removed bad links

Digging up old graves eh? They are referring to pressing the bj out of the LCA. Completely different ball park. One I would not do again without dry ice.

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http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

Definitely a different ball park on this ball joint. The 123, and 126 LCA ball joint is a pain in the rear.
I tried to get at it with a large pickle fork when I first did one, and found that the back side of the spindle blocked any chance of getting the fork in far enough.

A loosened nut, a little tension with a clamp, and a few good raps with a hand sledge, and out it fell.

Amazing how much you can learn from these guys, and from the crusty old coot of a mechanic you might be lucky enough to find and learn from!

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-Josh
Testing the cheap Mercedes axiom, one bolt at a time...

Sure wish I would have read this before I started out in my lower ball joint debacle. I only read the shop manual (who has their tools?)

Without this info I tried everything I could to get the lower ball joint out. In the end we had to heat the ball joint itself up and then smack it out with the knuckle off. This after having to cut the ball joint stud off with a grinder as I could not get the stud out of the lower control arm. Then with the extra room I was able to smack the remaining stud down and out.

I thought that was the going to be the end of the hard part. Installation was even worse. As my ball joint press had no hope of working in the tight space I put the new ball joint in the freezer over night and slow heated the whole knuckle up on a woodstove in the morning. Ideally the two pieces were supposed to slide together nicely. Not a chance. With only one shot at it as the joint heated and the knuckle cooled it was a bust.

I then went and sought advice at a local shop that specializes in MBs. The owner used to work at Mercedes and said when he was there a mechanic broke their press and they never bought a new one. They would use a punch on the rim of the joint and try and drive it in by alternating blows on opposite sides. So off home I went to try this tactic.

After about two blows the rim began to badly deform and the joint wasn't going any further in. Despite repeated efforts there was no further movement and the joint was getting ugly fast.

The next try was to put the arm back into the car and try load the joint by jacking up underneath it and lifting the car. With the joint loaded and me beating on it there was still no measureable movement into the socket.

By now running out if ideas and patience long since gone I realized that while I could not get my press onto the ball joint by itself I could get the press onto the lower control arm around the ball joint stud and below the ball joint on the steering knuckle. With significant force applied by the press I would then smack the ball joint rim, with a punch, down into the knuckle. This finally was the key. The joint moved in steps and I would retighten the press and smack the joint rim downward. Success at long last as the joint bottomed in the knuckle.

When I put the press back into it's premolded box it did not want to go. I had put enough pressure on it to open up the "C" and deform it.

I think I may wait a while before I attempt the other side...

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1984 300 SD, 2 tank WVO
1996 Ram Cummins, 2 tank WVO,
2004.5 Ram Cummins, 2 tank WVO

Ball Joints Differences and Tolerances
Ball Joints, Differances In Tolerances, 123

This is how I got my Ball Joint back in. Some members have don the same but used an Pneumatic Impact wrench to do the turning of the Bolt on the C Press.
It requires removing the Ball Joint Boot and would be better if there was a washer between the C Press and the Ball Joint (see the Red Arrow in pic 1).
After the Ball Joint started to stick out of the bottom I had to use the Pipe I had enlarged to 2 inches ID to press it downt further.
It might be that one of the Tubes that comes with the C Press might have worked; but the Pipe was on the Counter from another project so I used that.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Dry ice people. The freezer wont do the trick. Think you had problems? Mine were welded in!!!!

__________________
http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

on my 85,after pounding the eye for a while with a rather large hammer(this usually always works) i did have to resort to using the air chisel with a flat tip on it in that same area.that seems to work well..........

Use the press as shown in the prev post. Tighten, tap with gentle hammer blows to relieve pressure, tighten, tap... repeat until seated.

I've replaced many and never had an issue with any of 'em this way.