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Ecuador, Quito
1 Level
733 Review
48 Karma

Review on Enhance Your Truck's Power with OrionMotorTech Heavy Removal Adapters by Gary Perry

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Better than I thought.

I had some trouble clamping the ball joints into the steering knuckles on my 2005 Civic EX with a vise, so I gave in and ordered this kit despite some bad reviews. I had no real problems with this once I realized you can't follow the setup instructions to press the ball joints onto the EM2 (7th Gen Civic) steering knuckles, mainly because it's designed to press them into the control arm , where you have enough space to install various adapters. If you look at a diagram showing how to align everything and try to do it that way, the part of the knuckle that bolts to the strut will get in the way. Build your C-ABS, so don't even try. The component in the kit that you have to use to clamp the top of the ball joint to press it in will not fit the ball joint as it is too close to the steering knuckle to line up properly on the ball joint, but will if you hold the shell and the adapter down as shown in the picture, and then rotate the C-press so that the unthreaded hole pushes the ball joint in, and then use the threaded end to press the C-press and thus the ball joint down pull , it works well that way. Basically, align everything as shown in the illustration. You will soon realize that the joint is in the way. For now, leave it as is, but rotate the C-Press so that the threaded rod actually pushes into the adapter at the bottom of the cup, under the ball joint. Now remove the round adapter from the top of the ball joint (it won't fit anyway) and simply line up the hole in the C-press with the top of the ball joint. As you turn the threaded rod it pushes into the adapter at the bottom of the cup and lowers and the ball joint with it. That's the only way it works on this machine, which has the ball joint attached to the steering knuckle rather than the control arm. In general, I was strict with this kit. I used a kick because the ball joints I got were knurled and hard to press compared to the OEM type (much tighter fit) and I just didn't have the ability to get the leverage I needed to both to bend and to tighten the breaker bar it. It took some work, but I used both ball joints with no noticeable damage to the kit. The cups haven't fallen apart or bent, the C-press hasn't broken, the threads still look good. I think most people messing around with this set are using it wrong, or maybe they have a bad set, dunno. But the materials feel sturdy and look just as good as the $170 kit I used to rent from an auto parts store. I'm about to do another job on the Accord where I have to pull and push 4 ball joints so we'll see if it holds up. crossed fingers

Pros
  • Consistent test results
Cons
  • Not sure