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Hey all, I'd love to say I have pictures for this little DIY but I was in a bit of a rush so I didn't bother documenting it.
After alot of reading online I didn't really find anything to helpfull for this venture in the ways of good methods for removing the balljoints so I decided I'd post up what I was doing here.
When I first bought my car it already had hicas removed, however it was just a solid bar with the old tie rods threaded in. When I went for a safety I was told these had play and had to go so I opted to go for aftermarket toe rods from an s13 240sx. I bought a set of Isis adjustable arms, there is lots of grief about these on the internet however seeing how much Ken from Enjuku(isis dealer) stands up for them, and how much they put into r&d to make them better I'm quite happy with my purchase. The welds are all solid, the coating isn't that resilient it chips off quite easy but its under the car so nbd. They are nice arms and I trust isis so far. I'll update as bad things happen with them but for now the car has toe rods, rear and front camber arms, and front tension rods all from isis.
Anyways on to the balljoints. The hicas balljoint is deisnged to go in from back to front, and then has a screw and cap on the back to hold it in place. I also read about a snapring to hold it in however mine did not have these. There is grooves that looked like there should be snap rings so maybe whoever did the job failed. either way it wasn't my outers that were the issue it was the inner rods.
With the idea in mind that I had to pull the balljoint to the back of the car to get it out I set to torching. I used a small cooking torch with a little green propane tank on it, which was plenty sufficient. The first one we did was a real B*tch. I heated, then took a tie rod fork and pried with a bar towards the back of the car. I suggest not doing this if you want to save your balljoints, it destroyed the rubber boot. The first one came about half way out then just stopped and wouldn't budge further. We then took a grinder and chopped off what was out. What this accomplished was getting rid of the balljoint as well as the flange that stops the bushing from coming out the other end. Then to make life easy drilled through the center of the bushing where the balljoint use to live, and then took a jig saw with a metal blade and cut from the center outwards in 2 different places. Once there was a cut in both sides of the bushing i took a 3/4" socket extension and hammer and tapped it out easy as pie(when you cut slits in the bushing it removes space and allows the bushing to shrink in the hub). Obviously be careful when cutting the bushing you don't want to wreck your hub but cutting into it.
The second one was much easier. Again apply heat, then with my fork and bar I started prying. the bushing made it about 3/4 the way out then stopped but my fork didn't slip, so I just kept applying pressure and someone else applied heat. After a couple seconds it just popped the rest of the way out =]. Super easy.
I used AMS hicas delete bushings to replace the balljoints. These were easy to put in, a bit of grease in the hub then some grease on the bushing. Take the metal center out of the bushing, then it slid through the hub by hand, and just tap the metal center back in.
To add something for the arms to bolt onto we took a bolt with same thread pitch as the hicas tie rod and welded it onto a U bracket. Threaded that into my old hicas delete bar so it looked like Turtle Garages bar and just bolted the s13 arms on. Success, Hicas re-deleted, and no play in the arms
Hope this helps someone though I'm sure its rather messy.
After alot of reading online I didn't really find anything to helpfull for this venture in the ways of good methods for removing the balljoints so I decided I'd post up what I was doing here.
When I first bought my car it already had hicas removed, however it was just a solid bar with the old tie rods threaded in. When I went for a safety I was told these had play and had to go so I opted to go for aftermarket toe rods from an s13 240sx. I bought a set of Isis adjustable arms, there is lots of grief about these on the internet however seeing how much Ken from Enjuku(isis dealer) stands up for them, and how much they put into r&d to make them better I'm quite happy with my purchase. The welds are all solid, the coating isn't that resilient it chips off quite easy but its under the car so nbd. They are nice arms and I trust isis so far. I'll update as bad things happen with them but for now the car has toe rods, rear and front camber arms, and front tension rods all from isis.
Anyways on to the balljoints. The hicas balljoint is deisnged to go in from back to front, and then has a screw and cap on the back to hold it in place. I also read about a snapring to hold it in however mine did not have these. There is grooves that looked like there should be snap rings so maybe whoever did the job failed. either way it wasn't my outers that were the issue it was the inner rods.
With the idea in mind that I had to pull the balljoint to the back of the car to get it out I set to torching. I used a small cooking torch with a little green propane tank on it, which was plenty sufficient. The first one we did was a real B*tch. I heated, then took a tie rod fork and pried with a bar towards the back of the car. I suggest not doing this if you want to save your balljoints, it destroyed the rubber boot. The first one came about half way out then just stopped and wouldn't budge further. We then took a grinder and chopped off what was out. What this accomplished was getting rid of the balljoint as well as the flange that stops the bushing from coming out the other end. Then to make life easy drilled through the center of the bushing where the balljoint use to live, and then took a jig saw with a metal blade and cut from the center outwards in 2 different places. Once there was a cut in both sides of the bushing i took a 3/4" socket extension and hammer and tapped it out easy as pie(when you cut slits in the bushing it removes space and allows the bushing to shrink in the hub). Obviously be careful when cutting the bushing you don't want to wreck your hub but cutting into it.
The second one was much easier. Again apply heat, then with my fork and bar I started prying. the bushing made it about 3/4 the way out then stopped but my fork didn't slip, so I just kept applying pressure and someone else applied heat. After a couple seconds it just popped the rest of the way out =]. Super easy.
I used AMS hicas delete bushings to replace the balljoints. These were easy to put in, a bit of grease in the hub then some grease on the bushing. Take the metal center out of the bushing, then it slid through the hub by hand, and just tap the metal center back in.
To add something for the arms to bolt onto we took a bolt with same thread pitch as the hicas tie rod and welded it onto a U bracket. Threaded that into my old hicas delete bar so it looked like Turtle Garages bar and just bolted the s13 arms on. Success, Hicas re-deleted, and no play in the arms
Hope this helps someone though I'm sure its rather messy.
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