Blimey that was tight!

[moizeau]

Just spent today dismantling bits of a 207 for a friend. Two drop arms and two lower suspension ball joints. Couple of hours on the front garden, job done. Drop arms, covered in crap and seized, that was the easy bit. Lower ball joints..LHS unscrewed with a pipe wrench and a 1m bar! RHS wouldn't because it tried to pull the driveshaft out the gearbox, so I had to put the triangle back on to stop this, then jack the disc to allow me to get the pipe wrench on. It took the 1m extension and my foot against the caliper! I thought of taking the disc off to be able to get to it from the outside, thus pushing the driveshaft into the gearbox, but the was no way the caliper bolts were budging. Another thought was to cut the end off the ball joint and use a compressor and rattle gun, but that would have meant borrowing them. The RHS one also didn't unscrew by hand once loose, full elbow on the pipe wrench until out and the thread looks flat. Cross threaded or a bit of remaining swarf in the factory / garage?
I'd forgotten how awkward McPherson struts are compared to Cits of the hydraulic variety.
Just wondered if anyone else has come across this?