Does anyone know the socket size for the lower steering knuckle bolt?
I think it’s 24mm but want to be sure before I curb side pickup the wrong one.
Doing the ball joints. Slowly and deliberately... only wrecked one tie rod end so far (everything is so rusted tight).

 

It is 24mm. For anyone coming across this in the future.

 

Be careful with those ball joints, they are hard to get in and out. And if you heat the axle with a torch, the ball can blow out of the case like a cannon. Ask me how I know...

 

That's a scary thought, good to know...

Hate doing ball joints. I've got to do all four on mine before long.

 

Thank you for the words of caution.
I am worried about that. Every step in this process has been a pain in the proverbial.
Right now I'm trying to get the knuckle off, and it's not making it easy. It really likes being attached. I've kind of hit the head scratcher point. Can't find any way to make either of my pullers attach and all the banging and heating doesn't seem to make a damned bit of difference. Pickle fork only fits into the top one...
But I have a new plan, will go give it a whirl this afternoon.
I'm learning that when things start to go wrong the correct thing to do is to stop and go think about it (as opposed to keep trying what's not working, but try harder until it's all fubar).

 

do you have the right ball joint tool? Pickle forks make me wince....at the damage they can do....

this type of tool with a little heat on the arm usually works fine....

or are you saying you can't break apart the taper joints? or remove the ball joints?

 

Xrad: Yeah I've got one of those waiting. No worries there (yet).
It's getting the knuckle off that's currently got my stymied. I've been going at it from every direction I can think of, but it just won't budge.
Happy to hear suggestions because I'm running out of ideas...
Today was putting the nuts back on the threads of the old ***** and banging the hell out of them with a sledge... and then again with heat... and lots of punk-buster...
Not sure what my next attack will be.

 

I haven't had to do ball joints on the disco yet but on my other cars, I use this tool (macpherson and multilink though). You can rent them from your local auto store but maybe a pair of them might work in a pinch. YMMV but they work no problem popping ball joints on cars.

 

Hmm. I don’t think that would fit in the space, but perhaps something of the sort.
I’ve taken the weekend off the task, but when I go back I’m taking the air chisel to it and see what it can’t do.
There’s another post that talks about hitting it crazy hard with a sledge, but doesn’t really say where to hit it…