This method will be obvious for any mechanic but these are a job anyone can do at home, so this guide should help anyone who doesn't have or want to use a ball joint tool (they ruin the boots) to replace their ball joints or just remove the knuckle from the car.
The FSM doesn't provide these suggestions, it assumes you use the crappy tool, hence the guide. This isn't a bolt-by-bolt guide.
First up, don't forget to crack the wheel nuts with the wheel on the ground first. Jack the chassis up and support it on a jackstand or jack so the wheel at full droop still doesn't touch the ground. Take the wheel off.
Jack the lower wishbone a bit (don't take the load off the chassis jack/stand), put the head of your jack as much as you can into the recess for the stabiliser bar so that it's located but doesn't block off the nuts holding the lower ball joint on. This is just some redundancy for when you are cracking the balljoint nuts.
At some point (might as well be now so you're working on a constrained knuckle), remove the locking hub, clutch and circlip from the axle shaft. You'll need the space afforded by the CV coming partially out of the hub later. If you're also replacing your tie rods, remove the tie rod now, it'll make life much easier.
Take off the two split pins (upper and lower). Crack the castellated nuts. On mine the top was a 22mm spanner and the bottom was a 23mm spanner. The replacements were 19mm and 23mm respectively so yours may be either size or something else entirely. I used an extension pipe on both so I didn't pull the car off the jacks, also I didn't have a 23mm socket or ring spanner, so I risked using an open spanner and it didn't slip. Unwind both so you have 3 threads visible in the gap.
Release your jack under the lower wishbone just enough so that it is supporting no weight, but is still a tiny bit off touching. You want it to catch the lower wishbone reliably when the upper balljoint releases, otherwise you'll have a hell of a time trying to retrieve the wishbone from its extreme angle because of the torsion bar preload (it'll no longer be constrained by the droop bumpstop).
By doing this, you're using the torsion bar to pull the top balljoint taper out. The tool does the same thing, pulls the joint apart, but it also tears the boot. That's fine if you're replacing the joint anyway, but I couldn't justify buying one since if I ever want to take the knuckle off, I won't be using the tool and ruining the ball joint boots.
So start hitting the sides of the taper on the knuckle at the upper balljoint with the biggest hammer you can fit in the gaps. If you haven't done any ball joints before, you need to know you have to hit them HARD. The bigger the hammer, the less hard your blows need to be. If you need to turn the wheels left and right to get at both sides of the taper easily, do it. It might take a few hammer blows, depending on how big your hammer is. A nice big steel mallet is ideal, sledgies are a bit hard to control into the tight gap... They work fine on the tie rod joints though.
Once the joint lets go, jack the arm back up to take the load off the upper balljoint nut. Take the nut off. Take the lower nut off either now or after you crack the taper. Now that there is nothing else besides the lower ball joint holding the knuckle, the weight should be enough to persuade the joint apart when you hit it in the same manner as the upper. Again alternating hitting both sides is a good idea if it's stubborn.
Done. You can swap the upper now, it's easy and obvious. If you've left the tie-rod on, you'll have to pull the knuckle out as far as the tie-rod and brake line will let you, slide the CV as far back toward the diff as it will plunge, and wriggle the lower ball joint up through the small gap between the knuckle and the outer CV joint.
Torque specs on everything for reassembly:
Upper ball joint bolts: 16-21Nm
Upper ball joint nut: 78-147Nm (finally Nissan acknowledges that when you can't fit a socket and torque wrench onto a joint, they should design for a torque range broad enough you can feel it with your hands)
Lower ball joint bolt/nut (to wishbone): 47-61Nm
Lower ball joint nut: 118-191Nm
Put the locking hubs back together. Grease your new balljoints if they're greaseable. Wheel back on etc.
The FSM doesn't provide these suggestions, it assumes you use the crappy tool, hence the guide. This isn't a bolt-by-bolt guide.
First up, don't forget to crack the wheel nuts with the wheel on the ground first. Jack the chassis up and support it on a jackstand or jack so the wheel at full droop still doesn't touch the ground. Take the wheel off.
Jack the lower wishbone a bit (don't take the load off the chassis jack/stand), put the head of your jack as much as you can into the recess for the stabiliser bar so that it's located but doesn't block off the nuts holding the lower ball joint on. This is just some redundancy for when you are cracking the balljoint nuts.
At some point (might as well be now so you're working on a constrained knuckle), remove the locking hub, clutch and circlip from the axle shaft. You'll need the space afforded by the CV coming partially out of the hub later. If you're also replacing your tie rods, remove the tie rod now, it'll make life much easier.
Take off the two split pins (upper and lower). Crack the castellated nuts. On mine the top was a 22mm spanner and the bottom was a 23mm spanner. The replacements were 19mm and 23mm respectively so yours may be either size or something else entirely. I used an extension pipe on both so I didn't pull the car off the jacks, also I didn't have a 23mm socket or ring spanner, so I risked using an open spanner and it didn't slip. Unwind both so you have 3 threads visible in the gap.
Release your jack under the lower wishbone just enough so that it is supporting no weight, but is still a tiny bit off touching. You want it to catch the lower wishbone reliably when the upper balljoint releases, otherwise you'll have a hell of a time trying to retrieve the wishbone from its extreme angle because of the torsion bar preload (it'll no longer be constrained by the droop bumpstop).
By doing this, you're using the torsion bar to pull the top balljoint taper out. The tool does the same thing, pulls the joint apart, but it also tears the boot. That's fine if you're replacing the joint anyway, but I couldn't justify buying one since if I ever want to take the knuckle off, I won't be using the tool and ruining the ball joint boots.
So start hitting the sides of the taper on the knuckle at the upper balljoint with the biggest hammer you can fit in the gaps. If you haven't done any ball joints before, you need to know you have to hit them HARD. The bigger the hammer, the less hard your blows need to be. If you need to turn the wheels left and right to get at both sides of the taper easily, do it. It might take a few hammer blows, depending on how big your hammer is. A nice big steel mallet is ideal, sledgies are a bit hard to control into the tight gap... They work fine on the tie rod joints though.
Once the joint lets go, jack the arm back up to take the load off the upper balljoint nut. Take the nut off. Take the lower nut off either now or after you crack the taper. Now that there is nothing else besides the lower ball joint holding the knuckle, the weight should be enough to persuade the joint apart when you hit it in the same manner as the upper. Again alternating hitting both sides is a good idea if it's stubborn.
Done. You can swap the upper now, it's easy and obvious. If you've left the tie-rod on, you'll have to pull the knuckle out as far as the tie-rod and brake line will let you, slide the CV as far back toward the diff as it will plunge, and wriggle the lower ball joint up through the small gap between the knuckle and the outer CV joint.
Torque specs on everything for reassembly:
Upper ball joint bolts: 16-21Nm
Upper ball joint nut: 78-147Nm (finally Nissan acknowledges that when you can't fit a socket and torque wrench onto a joint, they should design for a torque range broad enough you can feel it with your hands)
Lower ball joint bolt/nut (to wishbone): 47-61Nm
Lower ball joint nut: 118-191Nm
Put the locking hubs back together. Grease your new balljoints if they're greaseable. Wheel back on etc.
