Im stuck, frustrated and need my truck back on the road! I am replacing the lower ball joint only but cant get the steering knuckle off.

I pulled everything off the steering knuckle on 93 dodge 4x4 but cannot get the steering knuckle to separate from the upper and lower ball joints! I have the nuts taken off the ball joints and the drive axle is loose and not holding anything up.

So what is causing the knuckle to not drop down and off the upper and lower ball joints? There must be something Im missing here...


(I know the ball joints need a ball joint press to remove and reinstall which I have and that's not a problem. The problem is, I have to take the steering knuckle off to get to the ball joints and the damn steering knuckle wont budge.)

 

The shaft on the ball joint is actually tapered and you probably will require a "pickle fork" tool. It has a taper from front to rear and is basically a two-pronged wedge the will fit on either side of the ball joint pin. When you drive it in, it will for the knuckle down.

 

This may help. This is for a full size Dodge...same idea.
http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech-article-6.html
Good luck.

 

Ya I thought about the fork but I think that might wreck the boot on the upper ball joint. My upper is fine, its my lower that needs the replacement.

 

Hammer the **** out of the side of the steering knuckle right by the ball joint, put the nut on the bottom of the knucke so that when you do hammer and it eventually comes off it wont drop on your foot. Smack each side of the knuckle that the ball joints on it will eventually give and drop off. That what I learned at Emortal I dont think i ever used a pickle fork for ball joints unless they were ciezed and the hammer didnt work. Let me know if it worked.

 

+1 to that! Get the biggest hammer you have, and take a few big swings at the knuckle and they will seperate.

But back to the fork idea... if you're only replacing the lower ball joint, why would you need to seperate the knuckle from the upper? Just seperate the lower from the knuckle, and then lift the upper and knuckle up out of the way and tie it off then do your work to the lower.

 

Heat, a BFH, and some PB. Git r done. Or what I had to do on my 93 when a pickle fork wouldnt work either is I ground the top of the ball joint down to nothing and hammered like hell on it till it dropped out then it was easier to get to.

 

every time ive done a balljoint on this truck ive pulled the cv axle and it gives you tonnes more room to move the knuckle

 

Thanks for the great input guys! I was worried about breaking the knuckle but from what I have read, Im getting my big *** ugly sledge hammer and its ***** to the walls!! Im gonna give that damn thing a run for its money! I will let you know if the hospital staff is nice too hahaha

Defiantly gonna put the nuts on so it doesn't hit the floor or my steel toed boots.

 

This job sucks haha!
okay, so I jacked the A-arm up till it lifted the truck and backed off a touch. I smacked the crap out of it and the bottom on came loose. Not the top. Then I realized that the cone (what ever its called) near the end of the axle was getting nicked and the top ball joint bolt was hitting the boot that covers the universal joint in it.

So definatly should have pulled the axle out before I started on the steering knuckle. Lesson learned. Hopfully the cone isnt damaged too badly. Mostly nicked in a few places.

Then I tried to remove the bolts off the axle to the transfer case I think it is? but the damn axle spins and I cant get the bolts off. So I am almost there but stuck once again! Oh and I found out that the boot that covers the universal has seperated / torn away from the clamp.

Starting to think I should have had a shop do this work. Now the lower ball joint bolt moves up and down in the ball joint head so Im not sure if I can even put this all back together with out having it all collapse soon as I drive it?

If I could get those bolts off the casing which the axle attaches to then I could remove it and just lift the knuckle out of the way enough to hammer out the old lower ball joint and press the new one in.