Fun with ball joints.

Any ideas for getting the upper ball joints out? I pulled my wheel today (Divers Side) to start some prep work for getting the upper ball joint out.

I started with beating the control arm to chip off all of the loose rust, I then took a wire wheel to get more off right around where the upper ball joint threads into the control arm.

Took my impact gun with the special socket to the ball joint to try and loosen it up. Could not get it to move. When I look closely at where the ball joint threads into the arm, it looks as if there is no seam where the threads would be.

tried heating the arm around the ball joint with my propane torch (best I've got) to no avail.

Also, I did NOT separate the ball joint from the knuckle yet. My assumption was that I could break the ball joint loose from the arm and that the inner ball would allow the main housing to spin around it. I would then be able to tighten the ball joint back up until this weekend when I'm ready to actually ready to do the full swap.

Maybe I'm thing about that all wrong though I didn't want to remove te knuckle yet so that I could easily throw the wheel back on and keep the truck driveable.

Also contemplating taking my 4.5 inch grinder / Cut off wheel to the ball joint and gutting the top and bottom out and then trying to beat the rest of the sleeve out of the control arm. Though this would be a last resort as I'm sure it will turn out to be more trouble then its worth.

When all is said and done, I need to replace all 4 ball joints.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

Back when I swapped mine out, a few weeks before trying, I started spraying it with penetrant oil. I also heated it with a torch.
I then preceded to break a 1/2 in breaker bar. Got a 3/4 breaker bar and a piece of pipe.
Finally got them out. Not sure if the penetrant oil or heat helped or if it was just force to get them out. But I finally got them.
A couple of things to add to this, when you do get them out, the threads appear to be wore out, but I believe they are made that way. My new ball joints tightened down fine, but I have heard of others that said they were stripped and would not tighten down. Also, I have heard of some tack welding the ball joint to the arm when that happens.
While you have the arm off, consider pressing in new bushings. They are available for the top, but not the bottom.
I used a poly bushing kit for a 97. The tops are the same as the older trucks, but the bottom is different. The 97 is longer, but you can cut it down and make it work.
If I had mine to do again, I would keep the rubber ones on top and only replace the bottom if wore out. The poly bushings squeak, but again, they are better then a wore out orig. bushing.

 

When I did the ball joints on my 2WD, with the threaded in upper ball joint, I gave up trying to remove them myself.

I took them to a shop, and they had to use their 1,000 lb/ft impact wrench.

It took two people holding onto the wrench to break it free (the one I couldn't remove.)

They then put the new ball joints in for me also.

Call a shop and see if they can do that for you, and for how much.

RwP

 

I'd like to avoid taking it to a shop if possible, but if that's when I end up having to do then so be it...

I'll be picking up a 3/4" breaker bar today after work and a 6 foot pipe and see what the thicket bar and extra leverage will get me.

I'm not going to be able to get new bushings for a few weeks, tough they are on my list.
I heard that the poly bushing will squeak if you don't lube them properly. Though I'm not really sure what 'properly' entails.

Any tips/tricks to getting the control arms off and back on again without completely messing up the alignment? I'm assuming that once I replace the bushings that I'm going to have to get an alignment anyways, but I'd like to at least get it as close as possible to start off with.

 

I don't see ANY way to get the UCA off without messing up the alignment.

For that matter, the torque to remove / install the ball joint can easily mess the alignment up.

Be sure to check and see if the shop you take it to has the special tool to speed up alignment - the one really competent shop near me doesn't have it, so I bought one for them ($70, but it knocks the time from 2 hours down to 15 minutes (!!!) to do the caster and camber.)

Every time I do oil, I spray a PTFE (Teflon brand on my spray) lube on the visible portion of my poly joints. I don't know if it doesn't squeak, or I just don't hear it, but compared to the previous dead rubber joints, it's dead quiet *grins*

RwP

 

My suggestion is not to mess up the threads pressing it out. Get a good wrench and a BIG pipe. I used a big *** pipe wrench and about 4' of pipe to get mine out. Not exactly easy, but with a fight the whole way out, they did come out and leave the threads intact.

 

+1 on the big bar, I used a section of fence post on a 1" breaker bar to get mine out.

 

I Picked up a 6 foot section of steel fence post today on the way home. Jacked up the truck and was able to crack the upper ball joints loose no problem. Of course now I can't find my 32mm socket to get the axle nuts off. Guess I'll be waiting for the weekend to finally finish this one up.

Hopefully once I get the steering knuckle out of the way, I can get the lower ball joints out without too much hassle.