Customer Reviews

Tool Aid 61900 Tie Rod End/Ball Joint Lifter

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I primarily work on my two Hondas (Acura Integra, and Honda S2000) and took a chance and purchased this product with no prior reviews. Thus far I've only had a chance to try it out on the front upper ball joints of my Acura Integra and I'm happy to report that it works as described. Hopefully those of you that see this will be less hesitant to buy it for working on a vehicle similar to mine.

I read a previous review of a user who used it on a Acura Integra. Since the Integra and the Civic share the same chasis, I figured this was a minimal risk purchase.

I used it on the lower ball joint of a 1997 Honda Civic DX.

The forked end of the tool that slides between the lower control arm and the ball joint dust boot is a little tall. I had to be very careful not to damage the boot as I was positioning the tool. Once in place, I noticed that top and bottom parts of the tool were almost parallel to each other. This gave me a good feeling that this tool was good for this application. Four half turns of the 17mm head bolt and ball joint popped loose.

The tool has a very crude finish to it and the hinge joint had me a little worried that it wouldn't hold together, but it did and it all worked beautifully.

If you have a 1996 through 2000 Honda Civic, and you need to remove the ball joint, at $19 and eligible for Super Saving Shipping, you can't go wrong with this tool.

the tool worked as intended without any problems on both the tie rods and ball joints of my 2002 Elantra. this
is not a pro-grade tool by any stretch, but quite adequate for the DIY. the portion of the separator that fits
against the nut is very thick and some cars may not have the needed clearance for it. but in my case,no problems,
saves quite a bit of time, and no damage to the boots. it more than pays for itself by allowing you to easily
change the CV joint/axle.

The tool is average. The quality is questionable. The upper 2 fork pieces broke when trying to pop out the ball joint. Will not seat well on all car applications.

This is a great tool to use to 'pop' off ball joints without damaging the boot (unlike pickle forks).

The "thumb" portion of this tool is very husky. There isn't enough clearance above the ball joint stub for me to slide the tool in place. I'll need to try to find a meeker tool with thinner parts. So I don't know if the tool works well or not.

I was using this for thrust arm ball joints on front of my E39. First I opened up the jaw of this thing by grinding the opposize ends off a bit. Had to cut the ball joint ball too to make it fit in.
This tool can work well. First time I cracked the center pivot pin, but replaced it with piece of old drill bit. Would be nice if had adjustable jaw span with multiple holes for center pin.

Planning out a suspension job on my 2004 Honda Civic LX I needed something to separate the tie rod from the strut. I noticed a lot of complaints about a pickle fork destroying the boot on a tie rod end so I decided to look into other tools. After a while I stumbled on this tool and reading the reviews I noticed some users had success with this tool on various Honda vehicles. At $20 I decided to give it a shot and if it didn't work I could go purchase a different tool. This worked well on both my tie rods but it was a little clumsy compared to other tools. For example the forked end is a little thick to push under the tie rod. The rounded end that presses the bolt out is a little too round to sit on the bolt well. I ended up leaving a nut on the end of the bolt so this tool could sit better on the end without damaging the threads on the tie rod. Overall it's a great tool for a great price that definitely got the job done.

THE GOOD
---------
1. Solid tool and does the job intended.
2. Great price compared to other pullers.
3. Did not damage the tie rod boot.

THE BAD
-------
1. Rounded end doesn't sit well on the bolt.
2. Forked end is a little thick to slide under boot.

In the end I also flipped this tool over and used it to press down on my tie rod as I turned the nut back on the bolt. This was again a shaky procedure since the forked end was too thick and I needed to barley have it on the strut assembly to make sure it didn't get in the way of the nut. I would still recommend this tool for pulling a tie rod since if you use it properly it will get the job done without damaging the boot.

I was a bit skeptical when I first bought this tool, because it looked to be too bulky for my 1997 Honda CR-V's lower ball joints. It actually worked pretty well with a couple modifications to its usage. First, contrary to the instructions, I used a hex nut on the end of the ball joint stem, being sure to seat the nut flush with the end of the stem (instructions say to leave the castle nut in place, but it seemed too tall - may be different on your particular vehicle). Second, the forked portion of the tool wouldn't fit all the way under the ball joint boot at first, so I applied a little grease to the fork so that I could gradually slide it under the boot as I turned the tool's bolt to separate the ball joint from the lower arm. Done.

All in all, this tool was a good value for its application.

Caution: Do not hammer aggressively on the tool to force the fork under the ball joint boot; you risk tearing the ball joint boot by doing so.

The stabilizer link on my 1999 Jeep Wrangler broke and I used this tool to separate the joint. It worked great! It took a lot of pressure to break it apart and I thought the tool might break, but it didn't. Highly recommend!