Seen the DIY on how to do an axle on a 96 civic, sounds pretty straight-forward.

However, dont want to get hung up on the balljoint removal bit, or tear the boot, etc...I had a bad experience w/ ball joint removal on my jeep awhile back, and I dont want to repeat that w/ the civic. I know there are tricks and all to getting that ball joint off easier, but I also remember reading somewhere awhile back about someone simply removing the upper control arm and strut instead to get the axle out?

Anybody done this? Is it going to be harder to get the axle in and out of there doing it this way?

thanks

 

I have done 20 axle's and never ever touched a ball-joint.

 

So how to do you do the axles? Take off the upper control arm and strut? You've gotta take something off to get that axle through that tight space, I would think...

thanks

 

sorry "seperate steering knuckle balljoint from lower control arm" - straight from haynes...using a puller, pry bar, jack, BFH, etc...that is the route I want to avoid. and heard you could by doing it the upper control arm way.

 

just wack the shit out of the the side of it and it'll pop.

 

remove the bolts that hold the lower control arm, also remove the bolt through the wishbone that holds the strut to the knuckles. swing the entire assembly out of the way remove axle. I am pretty sure I did a write up with pictures on here somewhere.

 

What? Man that's even more complicated than popping the ball joint.
snosurfa you aren't actually removing the ball joint. You take out the cotter pin, remove the castle nut, and use a hammer or mallet to whack on the little bump on the side of the knuckle where the balljoint goes into it. The joint stud will pop out and that's all there is to it.

Been a while since I did anything specifically D-series but I seem to recall at some point I was able to get the axles out w/o even doing anything to the suspension just cranking the wheel hard to one side then working at it. I had an axle pop out of the trans one time on it's own, that's how I knew it was possible to do w/o removing suspension!

 

it's actually alot easier than it sounds...6 bolts/nuts and the axle is out...I can do an axle out/in in about 15-20 minutes at this point.

 

Thanks yall. Sorry, yeah I misquoted didnt mean I was taking the entire ball joint out - just seperating it from to the lower control arm.

Just had a not-so-fun time knocking that out before, took a lot of pounding with a BFH. Course, that was on a rusty old jeep, so maybe the civic wont be as bad. 1st time is always the worst anyway, after you put it back together yourself its usually easier. so, I'm gonna forgo the whole suspension removal and and just do it the normal way. see how it goes...thanks

 

I've found the best way to remove ball joints is a combination of a tie rod end puller and a hammer. Take the castle nut off, put it back on backwards (VERY IMPORTANT - keeps ball joint bolt from collapsing), put the tie rod puller on and tighten it down a bit - not enough to break it free, just to put some pressure on the joint. Then use the hammer on the knuckle. This method has worked really well for me.