Hello,

I have a 95 Dodge Dakota sport with the 5.2L V8. Today I successfully replaced both tie-rod ends. One was badly rotten - the boot was torn, no grease in it and the ball was totally loose in the socket.

So, patting myself on the back for a job well done, I moved on and attempted to change the upper ball joints. These are threaded and I bought the big special 3/4" socket to remove them. I have a Canadian Tire electric impact gun but, because it's so big I couldn't get it on the socket as it wouldn't fit under the wheel well. DOH!

I tried to soak it with PB blaster and bang it to loosen it up. I then used a 2 foot breaker bar and it wouldn't budge. I think that thing is really stuck in there.

Anyone have any good ideas to get this thing loose? Should I rent a smaller, air driven impact gun to get it out? Things were going well and now my hands are cut, back is sore and morale is low Will have to recoup for the next battle

 

didnt even bother with a breaker bar on mine. i put a dewalt electric impact on there and got em out. gun was rated at 345lb of torque i think. should be able to use a air gun of eqaul strength if it fits under the wheel well. one side went loose easy. other side had i had to hammer it with the gun for a few minutes

 

I had to use a Snap-on 1/2" breaker bar (with a 1/2" to 3/4" adaptor) and a 4' jack handle on the end of it to break the last ones I did loose. You can get more torque doing it that way than with an impact gun. Unless the impact gun is a 3/4" or 1" drive then maybe. I also wouldn't use an inferior or Chinese made breaker bar unless you have ninja type agility to catch yourself when the breaker bar breaks.

A.J.

 

LOL Nice!

 

When I did mine, I ended up removing the upper control arms and taking em to my buddys shop. They were indeed a massive PITA.

 

Think I will go visit Home Depot tomorrow and rent either a smaller heavy duty electric impact gun like the DeWalt or an air compressor with air impact.

With the breaker bar method I'm a little worried that I'm going to pull the truck of the stands or snap the breaker bar in two.

If that fails, I'll probably take it to a shop.

I'll keep you posted as to what happens. Hopefully I can do it myself.

Thanks for your suggestions. If you have any others, please let me know.

 

CrazyJerry: Did you use the gun with the control arm on the car? Was the Dewalt a 1/2" drive?

Buick: How did your friend get the uppers out when the control arm was removed?

 

I'm also in the middle of changing my upper ball joints on my 94 2wd. I've tried a breaker bar with my jack handle over it, a 600 ft lb impact at 125 psi and nothing is happening. Do these loosen counterclockwise as viewed from above the ball joint like normal right hand thread? Maybe I'm trying to turn the wrong way. Frustrating.

 

This was the worst, most depressing DIY job I did. In the end I had to admit defeat. I believe the uppers are regular thread meaning CCW to loosen.

I soaked the damn things with penetrating oil and tried with a breaker bar and long cheater pipe same as you, but it didn't budge. To me, it looked it was going to snap the pipe.

I then went and bought the socket, socket extension, 500 ft*lb air impact gun (my electric wouldn't fit under the wheelwells) and borrowed my friend's air compressor.

I then used the impact gun. The passenger's side came out in about 15 minutes of repeated impacting, but with the driver's side I worked on it for 30 minutes and it didn't budge a bit. It was actually deforming the socket on the BJ. Since this was starting taking up a large part of my holiday, I sent it to the garage to finish the job. Actually it wasn't that expensive in the end ($400 dollars for alignment and change of driver's upper BJ, tierod end and both lower BJs)

Best technique was to impact CCW direction then switch to CW direction then back to CCW, and rinse and repeat. You need to break the layer of corrosion and this can take time.

At a vehicle of this age, those things are probably rusted on there real tight. If the impact doesnt work, you will probably need to use heat (torch) to get them out if you can't loosen them. You can pick one up from home depot for 20-30 bux.

 

I've tried heat and 1500 ft/lbs of torque what the heck am i doing wrong ?