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A cheap blow-lamp is handy for shifting siezed nuts and bolts. Its really not so hard once you get stuck in. I did my old 02's before I had my accident and so long as you note the order in which you remove stuff its pretty straight forward. Its also pretty satisfying. Nowadays, I struggle with DIY meachanics and even swapping my seats over wore me out but its still good to have a go.

wiz0r wrote: I did exactly what you need to do gonzo to pistonheader's 316 in about 3-4hours, but I do have experience and the tools.

and nearly lost a screwdriver in the process remember than rob? that thing wouldn't budge!!!!

what a cool 316 it is now though eh

60mm drop all the way!

Man, im dying to get it all on, will have to take a visit to the tool shop

Would a scissor splitter do, and what size stilsons should i get ?

Ordered everything i need so will try having a bash myself next week

Right, next week (4 weeks later) is now. Going to have a crack at it today so dont you lot go anywhere. Give it an hour and ill be screaming for help !

Good luck.

I'm just off to get my hands dirty myself.

Pics by the end of the day Gonzo!

Just as i thought, im f*** well stuck. How the hell do i get this out??
Ive hit it with a hammer, put a jack on it, got the C-clamp on it and it just will not budge


Ive split the bloody rubber at the bottom too trying to move it. Says in Haynes to 'Using a suitable tool (???!!!!) press the track control arm outboard balljoint stud out of the stub axle carrier

Blowtorch

Heat it (A LOT) and let it cool, then try hitting it with you hammer

dont have a blow torch unfortunately, think im going to have to jack it in for today, there's no way ill get all 4 corners done now

I have yet to come across a balljoint that would not come loose to the following method:

-The day before spray area with penetrant (may not help but makes me happy)
-Apply pressure on track control arm(wedge a piece of woor or similar and apply leverage).
-start with a small/medium size hammer and hit the side of the stub axle where the ball joint stub is located, it may take quite some hammering, but the constant shocking breaks it loose eventually. (if you have the tools, use a pneumatic hammer (the small type) with a blunt nose tool and hammer away whilst applying force to the track control arm)

Good luck on the project.

Thanks for the advice, but ive packed it in for today as it was really starting to piss me off. The brakes are pulling to the right now too so will have to bleed it all again. Somedays i wish id never bought the thing

Hi there,

I have a tool like this:

http://cgi.ebay.de/Kugelgelenkabzieher- ... 240%3A1318

It allways does the trick. Without even using violent force
or destroying the tread on the ball-joint.
And there not that expensive either.

cheers
Jeroen

All these Jeroen's driving BMW's!

I use the same tool but even then, I broke one as well, could try the method described by 1982 323i, worked for me before even without heating, just hammering the side of the stub axle. They get stuck beyond belief sometimes!

I have a ball joint splitter, i got the steering rod ball joint out no problem, its just the control arm rod thingy in the pic above that would simply not move however hard i tried.

It shows a picture of a special tool in the Haynes, it looks like a c-clamp with a bit stuck onto the side, other than using that i really cant see how i can budge it at the time being