The easy way to replace the LBJ. NO PRESS NEEDED!

INFORMATION Articles / Teg Tips
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Things you need:

  • medium sledge (~2lb hammer-- You need this to whack the hell outta the old LBJ so it comes out)
  • snap ring pliers
  • grease
  • new LBJ from parts store.

Process:

1- Remove Hub/Knuckle assembly from car. DO NOT BREAK YOUR JOINTS, USE THE PROPER TOOLS. (Compact Pitman Tie Rod End Puller will seperate them safely)
2- Put the castle nut back onto the old LBJ, so you wont break the threads.
3- Remove the Snap ring with the Snap ring pliers. The snap ring is located on the under side of the LBJ, near the end of the boot.
4- Hammer the old LBJ out, UPWARDS. (NOTE: This will also force the metal ‘ring’ inside the knucle out as well. This can be hammered back in later)
5- Grease the walls of the LBJ hole LIGHTLY, and then WIPE THE GREASE BACK OFF.
6- Tap the new LBJ into place, from the Hardened top end. Be careful not to break the rubber boot, or flex the joint too much.
7- Install the new snap ring that should have been included with the new LBJ.
8- Reinstall that metal ring which popped off, onto the hub/knuckle, by carefully tapping it with a hammer back into place.
9- Reinstall Hub/Knuckle assembly back onto car. Take care when mounting the new LBJ back into the lower control arm. Tighten all parts to torque specs, and adjust the nuts to install the new cotter pins, and new spindle nut for the axle.

DONE!

Was that REALLY all that hard? :stuck_out_tongue:
Articles/Teg Tips here I come! :slight_smile:

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:archivethis:

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Ok…brain cramp. Whats an LBJ?

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Lower Ball Joint!

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Ohhhhhhhhhhh. Duh @ me.

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A dead president… Lyndon Baines Johnson.

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can you list the steps in removing the hub/knuckle… this will be my first time doing it, so I dont want to mess anything… plus I can’t afford it. I assume I’ll have to:

Remove axle nut, remove axle, brake calliper, seperate upper ball joint… anything else?!?

Thanks, Brandon

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sort of, but for one, you dont ‘remove the axle’ all you need to do is…

1- take off wheel
2- loosen/remove spindle nut (acura recommnds its replacement, and it’s easier to torque the bitch when the brakes are engaged, using a large breaker bar or torque wrench ~24" long)
3- remove brake caliper/pads (2 bolts on back of knuckle) and loosen the brake line(s) from the knuckle… (you don’t need to loose brake fluid if your careful, too) IF you have ABS, you can also remove the ABS sensor from the hub at this time.
4- remove the rotor, its not required for changing the lower ball joint, but sure makes the thing alot lighter. You need a impact driver kit. I usually use the tip of it on my rachet for loosening the screws. If the rotor doesn’t come off easily, use the two nuts from the caliper in the other two holes to seperate it from the hub.
5- remove the cotter pins from the LBJ and the outer tie rod joints.
6- loosen the castle nuts (but dont them them off yet).
7- seperate the outer tie rod from the knuckle, and the LBJ from the lower control arm, using the right ‘compact car tie rod end puller’ tool from autozone. Use the tool with the castle nuts still ON so you do not risk breaking the threads by unscrewing the nut until it’s almost off the threads. Remove the nut when the joints ‘pop’ part, and then you can easily lift them out of thier sockets. Be gentle, because I’m sure you don’t want to end up replacing the outer tie rod especially.
8- GENTLY lift the knuckle out of the lower control arm, making sure not to pull on the axle!!!
9- GENTLY push/tap the axle out of the hub. Do not hit the axle with a hammer directly. Only use either a rubber mallet, or a hammer with a brass pin punch or something if the axle doesn’t easily come out. DO NOT PULL ON THE AXLE, PULL THE HUB OFF THE AXLE ONLY!!! GENTLY!!!
10- remove the cover to access the upper ball joint, and remove the cotter pin.
11- loosen the castle nut, and then seperate the upper ball joint using the same tool mentioned above, using the same process. BE CAREFUL! THE KNUCLE/HUB IS HEAVY, AND AS SOON AS IT 'POP’S OFF, IT WILL WANT TO FALL OFF YOUR CAR!

When reassembling everything, grease the holes slightly on the hub/lower control arm with your finger, and wipe clean. Also grease the straight edges that fit into the hub of the axle slightly, and clean. Torque all nuts/bolts to SPEC, and install new cotter pins.

You should only need a 10mm (brake lines), 12mm (brake caliper), and a 17mm socket (the rest), plus the 32mm for the spindle nut, and if you want to torque down your lug nuts, use a 19mm socket.

If you remove the passenger side axle, first thing your gonna notice is tranny fuild leaking all over the ground… You dont have to.

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so why is it recommeneded to replace the spindle nut?? I just replaced both axles w/autzone ones about 3kmi ago, which came with new nuts… i’m assuming they’re still good, plus i dont tap in that little “lip” thats there.

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Originally posted by JinteDgraM
so why is it recommeneded to replace the spindle nut?? I just replaced both axles w/autzone ones about 3kmi ago, which came with new nuts… i’m assuming they’re still good, plus i dont tap in that little “lip” thats there.
:wtf: i think you probably should go do that right now buddy. wouldnt it suck if that bish backed itself off? :uhoh:

anyway, im gonna say archivethis since its not supposed to have the ::'s :wink:

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archivethis only works for GD, because it gets cleaned out.

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I have them torqued on there pretty good, but even when i first ever fucked with them (factory assembled), that little lip wasn’t pushed in… i guess i’ll go do that today…

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a hammer and a small screwdriver works well :slight_smile:

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you replaced the upper balljoint? where did you buy it from? honda doesnt even sell em, they make you replace the whole arm. i happen to have one, but have no idea where it came from.

btw the easiest way to pop the lower balljoint loose is to jack up the rotor, stick the handle of a ratchet behind there on top of the joint, then lower the rotor until it pops loose. takes about 15 seconds to do.

for the upper i was always scared to use my pickle fork, but it popped loose right away without damaging the boot like others warned me about…

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we’re talkin about the lower ball joint…

but anyways, does your method include removing the snap ring? because that’s the main thing that holds it into place, with the ring wedged into the groove on the LBJ.

Also, the knuckle ring tends to get in the way after it “pop’s”.

…

My method doesn’t take long, either. It takes me the most time gettin’ that damn snap ring off the first time.

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The axle nut is not going to back out with 140lb-ft of torque.

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No shit, it’ll back out after you undo the ‘pinch’ in the sidewall, and use a 24" breaker bar or torque wrench, with a spindle nut socket.

It should only be torqued down to 134ft-lbs unless someone is an idiot and used an air hammer to put it on. It would be a sad day to break your axle from over-torque’ing it.

In fact, my brother’s impact gun cant even bring it to 134ft-lbs, I need to use my torque wrench to finish it off.

btw, its ft-lbs, not lb-ft…

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Originally posted by Xirphoid
No shit, it’ll back out after you undo the ‘pinch’ in the sidewall, and use a 24" breaker bar or torque wrench, with a spindle nut socket.

It’s also not going to back out if you torque it down to 134lb-ft and decide not re-pinch the axle nut sidewall.

It should only be torqued down to 134ft-lbs unless someone is an idiot and used an air hammer to put it on. It would be a sad day to break your axle from over-torque’ing it.

I was giving an estimate since I don’t remember the exact torque specification in the manual. Also, your torque wrench is not very accurate at higher torque settings, so the standard click-type contains a small uncertainty in measurement.

btw, its ft-lbs, not lb-ft… [/B]

It’s both actually. The magnitude of torque is a scalar quantity. You can switch them since they’re multiplied. I usually say/write “ft-lbs” anyway. Read a physics or engineering textbook, it refers to Newton-meters cuz it sounds better.

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back off heh

I dont think i would ever see a spindle nut back off like that, we couldn’t get one off of my accord (almost exactly the same part) with 600ft-lbs. of torque. I don’t think anything too bad would happen even if it did come off because the axle does not carry any latteral load, and the spindle is held in by the LCA and the upper ball joint so it is not going anywhere. All you would have to do is go and buy a new nut…

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my question would be… why the fawk would it be on THAT hard for? It doesn’t have to be even close to THAT much torque.

Get a 1"+ Impact gun then … one of em that are the size of a jack hammer… :slight_smile:

1" Drive rachets work well, too… especially when coupled with an un-bended 10-12ft peice of raw pipe. Imagine the torque… Haha, doin something like that is soo funny… you can hang on the bitch with your body weight.