Once my local mechanic said it would be about $800 to replace a couple lower ball joints and tie rod ends I immediately took action in my own hands! I took my truck to my garage and lifted it, took off the tire, calipers, rotors and knuckles, and used the pickle fork to remove (dislodge) the ball joints from the control arm. This is a 2004 V8 4.7L and it's the trucks first ball joint replacement, which means the bolts that hold on the ball joints are the factory bolts! Looks like I have to cut off the bolts (Only way right?) I used a 7/32 Cobalt drill bit and drilled through the rusted bolts. That's where I stand, the ball joints wont budge. I'm pretty new to this, Never drilled out bolts before, so far I have beeen unsuccessful. Any help will benefit.

Thanks!

 

Welcome to the Forum...

The ball joints are not bolted in, they are riveted in place on the control arm. You have to drill out the rivets to remove the ball joints. Then you can install good quality bolt-in aftermarket parts like TRW or Moog. You need a cobalt or similar treated drill bit. I used a 7/16" bit from Home Depot on mine. I also used a set of smaller cobalt drill bits and drilled out successively larger holes in the rivet body until I finally drilled it out with the 7/16" bit, then the rivets fell out of the control arm. A light cutting oil would probably help you drill through the rivets too.

When I did my ball joints about two years ago I took my time with it over the course of a weekend and took some pics of the job. I posted a how-to with pics here:

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...to-w-pics.html

One thing I would suggest is if you are only doing the lowers, it is probably a good time and a good idea to do the uppers too while you are at it. My own uppers looked OK when I did the lowers, so at the time I left the uppers alone. I wound up having to do the uppers less than 3 months later, basically had to do the whole job over again. You can save yourself time and trouble later by doing all 4 ball joints now. Just use a good quality part. I put TRW lowers and Autozone Duralast uppers on my own truck. I have had no problems with either one. TRW makes the Duralast ball joints for Autozone anyway, and they cost half as much as a set of TRW upper ball joints. The uppers don't take near as much abuse as the lowers do.

There are some other good ball joint how-to posts here too. Just use the key words "2 wheel drive ball joints" or "ball joint how-to" in the search box and you should get more good info on it. It was not exactly the easiest job I have done on my truck but once I got one side done, the other was a lot easier. Have fun with it and be sure to get a good alignment done afterwards.

Jimmy

 

I second 01SilverCC's previous post he linked. I utilized that when I replaced one of my lower ball joints a month ago. Very helpful post - Thanks for that!
As well I utilized this video, which I'm not sure if its posted in the previous ball joint forum post in which 01SilverCC posted, but here it is again. Really good tutorial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doe-tyedZfw

 

Getting the top ball joint done at same time is a good idea here is a good guide in PDF format or just look at it on the web.

Replace the torson bar links at same time is also a good idea.

Top are easy the bottem not so easy.

http://www.rp95.com/BJ_replacement.pdf

 

Thanks guys! The only thing I was unsure about was if the rivets had threads or not, I didnt wanna drill through the holes and have to re-thread the holesafter completion. I started drilling with a 7/32 (Colbalt) drill bit and now up to a 3/8", having trouble getting through the hard steel so I might use a punch, or go back to the store and buy that 7/16" bit and give that a try. I'm gonna replace the uppers too, I noticed when I took the knuckle off the upper joint I punctured a hole in the rubber on the ball joint. I'll post some pictures if I can but anyways THANKS FOR THE HELP!

 

98DAKAZ, were you referring to the sway bar on the truck? (purchase a sway bar repair kit?) I dont have a torsion bar type suspension on my truck.

 

yes sway bar I should of said not torson bar those sway bar links.

 

I call them stabilizer bar links. Whatever they are called, they take a lot of abuse too. Napa Chassis parts is the better one to use, plus they have a lifetime warranty. When I did my upper ball joints they were a lot easier to drill out the rivets than the lowers. I guess that is because I was already familiar with the R&R process or maybe because there is more room to work and the uppers are higher up off the ground which made the job easier.

Jimmy

 

Alright, So I replaced the sway bar links, lower ball joints, upper ball joints, tie rod ends, and the abs wheel speed sensors. I have everything assembled on there, I had some difficulty getting the steering knuckle back on the ball joints, the gap was pretty big so i had a jack bottle placed under the spring and jacked up, then I hand tightened the lower ball joint castle nut, then had to force the upper control arm downwards to be able to put the castle nut on the upper ball joint, it was a pain. I'm doing the same process on the opposite side, however I cannot get the upper ball joint low enough to screw on the castle nut, I thought maybe you have to compress the spring so I can freely move the upper/lower control arms to make it easy to install the knuckle. Any suggestions without taking it off or compressing it??

 

Ok in the video above, he made it look easy with the installation of the knuckle, I am having difficulties lol