Went to school this weekend! balljoints 101

[mr.wilson]

I have never replaced balljoints before and hope I never have to again. Luckily for me my father-in-law is always willing to help. We started around 10am saturday morning by disassembling the brakes and swaybar, then moving on to spreading the joints from the spindle. After that was complete, the rest of the day(until 7pm) was spent removing the balljoints from the control arms without airtools. These were the original units(my dad never replaced them). Sunday morning we get up, install the new springs, balljoints, shocks and swaybar bushings, greased her up and went for a ride. WOW!!!!!!!! What a difference it makes to have new suspension on an old truck.

P.S. Anyone have any airtools and a compressor in the DFW arear for the next big project I tackle!!! lol

[Yukon Jack]

Glad it made a great improvement.

[Tx Firefighter]

You should borrow the proper tool from a parts store for the lower ball joints. All it takes is a wrench and a few minutes to remove and replace them.

On the uppers, all you need is a cheap 16 dollar HF grinder, a punch, and a hammer.

With the right tools, it's not too bad at all.

[lilred67]

if you don't have the proper tool for the lower ball joints,you can always use a BFH. it will do the trick.i place a jack or a block of wood under the lower a-frame and knock the crap out of the ball joint with the BFH.

[mr.wilson]

The BFH is what saved me.

[fade94]

Originally Posted by mr.wilson

P.S. Anyone have any airtools and a compressor in the DFW arear for the next big project I tackle!!! lol

I'm not too far from ya. I'm in Melissa, just North of McKinney. I have good size compressor (60 gal 7 hp) and a decent selection of air tools. Also have a wire welder and just got a HVLP gun I'm all about the barter system.