Sics Consolidated Faded Moderns Thread - 2006 Golf Mk5 GTI & 2004 BMW Z4 2.2

[angrydicky]

Well you did well to shoehorn yourself in, I found it rather uncomfortable!

[Eddie Honda]

Compact and bijou Mostyn, compact and bijou.

[SiC]

Bang on an hour to do the otherside. Pickle fork made it a lot quicker
 

[panhard65]

What is it with ball joint splitters. 40 odd years I have been in this game and never used one and certainly would never use one of those forks. There is just no need.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Hammer crack on the side, off they pop.

Pray you don’t have to replace the front struts. What an absolute CUNT of a job.

I have to say - I absolutely detest VAG and the shit way they design stuff to be as much of a bastard as possible.

[SiC]

This is because you're professionals and know what you're doing. I'm just someone with all the gear and pretending I have an idea.

[SiC]

Someone I think has been in here recently for struts and springs. Nice to see a decent brand on both. (The rear with me won't be )

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

PHEW!

Sachs as well, proper.

[Eddie Honda]

What is it with ball joint splitters. 40 odd years I have been in this game and never used one and certainly would never use one of those forks. There is just no need.

Hammer crack on the side, off they pop.

Ok, I'll bite. Some do, some don't.

On the risible dogshit Realtoe, the steering arm wasn't really game for popping. Perhaps because the blows were expending most of their energy through the front spring and also the radius arm mounting bushes. Now on that occasion I didn't have to resort to anything other than picking up a second BFO hammer to counter swing at the same time.

Moar recently was the Jizz. The bottom ball joint didn't want to budge as the side of the swivel was getting mullered. Now on those, there isn't much room to get in a lot of ball joint separators anyway with the nut been top side very close to the hub housing. I reckon a hammer would have probably worked with a) a massive pry bar to lever down against the anti-roll bar and take the pressure off it. b) messing around trying to undo the drop links and popping the steering arms, to achieve the same. Or c) having it high enough in the air (like on those 4 post lifts every DIYer has handy) to have the right angle to get a decent swing at it.

Never had any issues hammer popping that bloody Land Rover. Piece of cake on that one. Wasn't a problem popping the track rod end on Tommy's L322. That cunt though would of needed either a new inner rod or a gas axe to get the bloody thing separately - not happening at the side of the road in the pissing Glasgow rain.

Inner track rod ends on the DAF/Volvo 66 are right behind the engine and may need a splitter to pop out as there just isn't room to swing a hammer at them behind the cylinder head.

I believe some new-fangled tosh with aluminium suspension arms aren't fond of being attacked with BFO hammers either.

Just like vice will get certain bearings in and out, but a vice isn't a press. Some do, some don't.

tl;dr: Horses for courses. Depends on the situation. Broadly doesn't matter if the end result is the same.

[SiC]

I did try whacking it with a hammer but I couldn't really get that good a swing at it. Which is why I got the second hand ball joint splitter out for a go. Just that wasn't wide enough to fit in for the bolt to press. Instead it acted as a fork.

That fork was only like a fiver delivered. Three or four hard swings was enough to break free. I'll probably use it again if I have another to do as it was easy enough.

I guess the car was higher, I wouldn't be on my knees. So I'm swinging down below on jack stands and getting less power in than using my body rotation to add force if my arm is more level like it would be on a lift.