on the Polaris McPherson strut.
Here is how I tackled mine while still on the machine and with no special tools on my 2003 Magnum 330 4x4. Mine does not have the funky special hubs with oil in them. Hope it helps some of you to do it on your own.
First get the front end off the ground, remove wheel
remove brake caliper and wheel hub then use a ratchet strap and hook both ends to top of spring and around the tie rod end mounting point on strut not the tie rod itself. Apply enough tension to ratchet to compress spring so it does extend when removing A arm. Remove ball joint castle nut and save if you did not get a new one. use running end of strap to tie up caliper. Tap lower A arm off ball joint.
remove rubber spacer (save if no new one)
Using a T25 torx screw remove base plate (it is not an allen as service manual says it is)
Using some form of big washer(all I had lying around was a muffler clamp spacer) screw castle nut all the way up the ball joint till it seats.
then a hefty pair of vise grips
a little heat
then using a tie rod fork. striking it upward with a BFH ( not to hard but not to easy either ) till the ball joint starts to come out
then I used a flat piece of metal as a spacer between the fork and bottom of strut
and after a few smacks....POP, out she comes!
old joint on left, new on right. Glad to see they changed the design to allow joint to get more grease!
cleaned out the joint socket of what old grease was in there, pumped a small squirt of grease thru zerk to make sure it was free and clear. coated the inner wall with new grease, applied some to the new joint and using a 13/15 deep socket, gently taped the new one in till the outer rim of the ball joint was flush with the bottom of the strut. Reinstall the base plate, attach A arm, grease it thru zerk and your done. total time was about an hour from start to finish. It took me longer on the first one I did trying to figure how and what to use for tools. Again hope this helps!
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