Ok, I don't know if civics have a-arms or not, assuming they do. Anyways my little brother got a 91accord and I'm replacing the a-arms for him. Now I got the two upper ball joints off fine, and now the lower one I got the pin off. But how do I remove it? do I hammer out the shaft? If so, do I use a rubber mallet?

 

the lower balljoint is no diff't than the upper. if you could remove the upper, what is the problem you're having with the lower???

what shaft?? you mean the axle?

 

maybe it's different on a civic, or maybe it isn't a balljoint. It's on the on the a-arm (upper control arm). There is three different points on this piece. The piece is shaped like a V. At the ends of the V there is a rubber piece on each side and a threaded shaft that goes the body of the car, and the other end is under the hood with the shock tower in the middle. This pieces are helded with bolts. Now those two ends come down and join as one forming a V. At this point there is a rubber piece with a threaded shaft as well with a cotter pin holding it in place. I removed the cotter pin and I've been hammering it out with a household hammer, it moved it out, but not far enough, and I don't think it is moving anymore. I talked to a mechanic and he said go ahead and use a mallet. I'm gonna try that.

 

Ok, I figured I could use a balljoint fork and a mallet. Well I go to CT, rent balljoint fork, this takes like 15-20mins, I go to pickup a mallet to buy and the lines are to the end of the store and only two fricken cashiers, drop mallet, go home with only bj fork. The fork helped, but the mallet is neccesary to get it out. @!?$ ME! Sorry for the rant

 

glad you figured it out... pics would have helped, but it sounds to me like you are just talking about the upper ball joint. Hitting the knuckle with a hammer usually makes it pop out.

 

ya unfortunately my hammer is a cruddy conventional household one. I love TCC, and mojonation. I posted this same question on TAC (Accord club) and cb7tuner.com (4th gen accord club) and got tons of views and no replies, only here and mojonation is were I got some help. I guess accord owners don't do work on their own cars.

 

Got the a-arm off, but the actual shaft thing is still stuck, it has a ball at the top of it. I'm gonna try heating it up and hammering it out, but I don't think my torch lighter is gonna do the trick.

 

I'm such a friggin idiot. There was soo much rust and crap that I didn't realize a nut was holding it in place. Well I start unbolting the nut but it won't come off the thread all the way because it's damaged at the bottom. So I start to hack it off with a saw, and then get chisel and pop the top half of. Now that it's off I put in the new set, went to the driver side and did that side properlly.

 

go get a service manual and am sure helps u a lot

 

oh, everything is done, thanks for the tip though