Hi Folks, I have a torn inboard boot on the front right side of my Honda TRX300FW. I'm considering replacing this myself but the maintenance manual calls for a "Ball Joint Puller" (P/N 07MAC-SL00200). I priced this tool out and it's $170 ... ouch!! Is this tool really required? Is there a substitute? My ither option is to spend $100+ for the shop to do it but I'd rather do it myself if feasible.

Thanks,
Tom

 

That exact tool is not required. An auto supply store should be able to provide you with a fork type ball joint splitter at a reasonable cost. Just make sure the tool is small enough. I use one that's intended for use with Honda cars and it works fine. Probably just as expensive as the quad one tho. A good size pry bar might work ok too if the ball joint nuts weren't overtorqued, or the a-arm isn't really stuck on the taper of the ball joint.

 

Dont' worry about the puller. The tie rod comes off quiet easy. Instead of taking the whole wheel assemble off just remove the two bolts that hold the lower A-arm on and then remove the lower shock bolt. Just changed mine last weekend and took about 1 hour.

 

Thanks dzzy and Pepco ... I think I have enough info to get started. I'll try it without the puller at first. If it works, great. If not, I'll head down to the auto supply store and find one. I'll most likely work on this next week ... I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again for the advice!

 

It's not a puller you need, but a pickle fork, at least that's what we call them.

 

Yeah, or a tuning fork. I think if you do it the way pepco describes, you can leave the ball joints intact with the a arms. Be careful not to stretch the brake line tho, or let anything heavy hang on it.

 

Thanks for the web site ... I tried www.hondapartsworld.com a few times via the web browser but I couldn't connect. Maybe their web server is down. I'll try it again tomorrow. Thanks Much for the pointers!

 

Just wanted to pass along a "Thanks" to the folks on this thread that gave some excellent advice for replacing the front boot on my TRX400FW. I successfully replaced my first torn boot. I ended up getting all the parts from hondapartsworld.com at a fraction of the cost the dealer wanted. The parts took less than a week ... delivered to the front door. To remove the shaft I removed the lower arm and the shock absorber bolt as Pepco indicated ... this must be much better than removing the ball joint from the knuckle as specified in the maintenance manual. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]
Thanks Much!

 

In terms of time it's a toss up if you have the proper tools.