Track rod end the fast way.

[f100stepside]

Friend of mine runs a Landrover Workshop and gave me a lesson in Track Rod removal.
Car up on the stands removed front wheel, slacken off bottom nut on Track Rod, wind a piece of tape after the nut on the steering bar side to note it's location. Give the Track Rod bracket a few sharp blows, bingo! the Track Rod end pops down. Easy job to remove it and fit a new one. First one took 15 mins second one 12 mins.

[Motorsport Micky]

"Temporal malformation"

On the track rode ends the ground tapers holds the Brackets by "stiction" the same effect you get when you "ring" perfectly flat pieces of steel together. The surfaces are that flat they exclude air reaching the surfaces so they suck together as if glued.
By holding a lump of steel firmly behind the bracket (lump hammer does nicely) and then giving a smart "rap" with a ball pain hammer ( or other suitable implement) to the front of the bracket it temporarily deforms the materials ( sends a ripple shock wave through the materials molecular structure ) which allows the surface tension tapers to "pop" apart. Works on almost all tapered surfaces where they refuse to be parted, many owners try to use a ball joint splitter but then beat down on the end of ball joint thinking they can knock the items apart but the rubber bonding absorbs much of the impacts and you still have the sticking tapers to beat.

Micky

[richardthestag]

lump hammer approach has never failed me yet

[KOY 23]

Me neither, unlike joint splitters that destroyed threads and rubber boots.

[Ctwidle]

I was taught to also have a lever ‘encouraging’ the joint apart while apply the ‘temporal malformation’ force.
chris

[Ritchie6]

I'm going to be removing mine shortly to replace the steering rack gaiters. I reckoned that I'd undo the threads on the ball joint almost to the end and then use a small bottle jack under the nut to add some pressure before smacking it with a hammer. Back when I worked at a garage we always used two hammers,one to strike and one behind the ball joint as a sort of anvil to help shock the joint loose which usually worked. As KOY 23 said these fork type splitters can ruin the boot on the ball joint.

Richard

[f100stepside]

Just done the front ones on my series 2a land rover. It was so simple i think the reason for this is 'land rovers are built from thick solid steel'. When i wacked it with the lump hammer nothing vibrates it just pops apart!, simples!. John