I'm baaacccckkkk.
Had good confidence builder answers from the list to my quest for
help, so home I went yesterday with optimistic hopes of succeeding
with the removal of the ball joint from the tie rod.
I had soaked the area for two days with penetrating oil and had "big"
crescent wrenches, vise grips, pipe wrench, open end wrench etc. at
hand and was aggressively going to get this nut and ball joint to
move.
Ended up rounding the nut. No movement. Ha... No little nut is
going to foil me!! Don't like the heat thing much cause of the
confined space I'm working in, SO I THUNK to myself, SELF-- Cut that
little Ba***** off. Out comes the rotary tool with a cut off disc and
a cutten I commence. SUCCESS! The nut is cut in two places, just to
the threads, and a chisel knocked it of. OK now the ball joint....
That little t**d would not budge either!!! Ha..... again. Cut the
nut off, let's cut the ball joint off. Gingerly I cut two slits down
the ball joint and then cut between these two slits to get a chunk out
of it. Slowly working to not booger up the threads.
TA-DAA!!!! Got it all off with only very minimal thread scoring.
Victory!!!
Now a question to the list.... What is the thread size of the tie rod
end that the new ball joint will screw onto??? I want to run a die on
the threads to clean them up.
Thanks to all that corresponded on my dilemma. This list is great!!
Now on to the other side!!!! Wish me luck......
Dave
'62 MKII Sprite
Dublin, CA
HAN6L14083
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