Just a quick question on replacing lower ball joints. Do I need to remove the hubs / driveshaft to make enough room for the balljoint press? I don't have a manual here at work and was going to start the job tonight. If I need to pull them I'll have to pick up an axle socket on the way home from work.

Thanks!
Bob

 

Yes you can't get the lower out unless you remove the CV Half Shaft.


Brake loose the axle nut, raise the Durango and remove tire, remove the brakes and rotor, undue the 3 bolts behind the knuckle to remove the wheel bearing, undue the retainer nut on the tie rod end (but dont take it fully off to protect theards) and smack it with a hammer and remove the nut and lower the tie rod end, twist the knuckle enough to pop the CV end out.

Now here comes the hard part, if it is OEM there might or might not be a snap ring on the back side of the lower ball joint. Look very close as it is a large snap ring and remove it so the ball joint can be removed as it is tapered. Remove lower Ball Joint nut and press it out.

Remember upon installation of the new one that you ensure the grease port is matched with the inlet of the ball joint so the grease will flow into it!


Hope I didn't miss anything......LOL...........Damn whiskey!

 

Thanks Hydra, I started the job last night. Man those driveshaft nuts are tight!!!! Got the left side torn down now, and it looks like I'm replacing the driveshaft 'cause there's a tear in the boot. I may have done that one myself when working on removing some of the bolts behind the steering knuckle and was careless with the breaker bar.

Lower ball joint is original and had a snap ring, came out pretty easy. Thanks for the tip on the grease port, I would've missed that for sure.

I had questionable upper ball joints on both sides, (replaced by dealer once during recall) so I figured that I may as well go thru the whole front end, then get a new alignment. Any opinions on changing out the control arm bushings? They don't appear worn, but the truck is still high mileage and they're original. How tough are they to remove / replace?

Bob

 

Any you remembered all of that *while* having a few?!?! I'm impressed!

Bob

 

Just for clarification, that would be the CV shaft. Drive shaft doesn't have boots.

Also, if you're pretty sure that you tore it while working on it, and it hasn't been driven with the tear in it, go ahead and just replace the boot. Shaft and joints would probably still be just fine in that case.

 

Yeah, that's what I meant to say. I'll take Hydra's excuse and blame it on the alcohol....

I *do* think I tore it, but the boot was pretty worn anyways. After I get both sides pulled apart I'll clean up the shafts good and inspect them to make a decision on replacement. It's easier to do them now while it's already apart vs. having to tear it down again in the future.

Bob

 

A few, try a few more........

Just replace em.....IMHO....You are going to be right there anyway and all you have to do is pull them from the diff literally. In fact it would be stupid not to do it especially with worn or failing CV's.

Also you could think about doing the Upper Ball Joints as well, but really those are very easy to do and all you have to do is take the tire off, anyway the option is yours.

 

Whew, that ended up being a bit more work than I expected. Everything came apart easy right up to the point where I had to take out the passenger side lower ball joint. Bent two different ball joint presses, tried using heat, oil, etc. and couldn't get it to budge. Finally ended up pulling the lower arm & put it in a press. Pushed on it lightly and the damned thing practically fell out.

Fortunately everything went together very easily. I ended up just replacing the boot on the CV joint as it was very obvious that I inflicted the damage on it. I put new upper bushings on both sides as well since I was in there, they were cheap, and the old ones came out easily. I wanted to do lowers as well but they didn't show up as being available (2WD only?) even though the parts *looked* the same.

New shocks, got my new tires all mounted & a quick trip down the road to make sure it didn't fall apart. It sure is nice to have the front end so tight again. Going in for an alignment this week, but it looks like I'm good for another 150k now!

Bob

 

Good to hear ya got it!


Getting those lowers out is a huge PITA! I used a very large hammer and rolled the factory edge on the ball joints so they would pop out. Most likely when you applied pressure the factory edge on the top of the ball joint rolled out and they popped out. The new ones come with snap ring that replaces the rolled edge on the factory Ball joints.


On the lower control arm bushings they are listed as "Not Serviceable". This is because the outside metal lining on the bushing is formed to the inner bushing. Now you can heat em and burn the old ones out of the lining then replace the inner bushing. I don't know if the uppers will slide into the lower linings though??? I have heard that they can and also seen some things on the web of Energy Suspension kits (Polyurethane) that can work by doing this.

In the service manual it states replace the entire knuckle if the bushings are bad......... (LOL.....ya right) rebuild your bushings.

 

Yeah, I saw the Energy Suspension things about pulling the lowers and re-using the sleeves with the new bushing material. Not too sure about that myself.

There is a part number available for a lower bushing on a 2WD model but the part was out of stock so I couldn't compare it. The picture of it looked correct, but who knows if the diameter's were the same. I wasn't about to take the chance.....

Next job, track down a new (small) tranny fluid leak that I saw when I was crawling around under there.

Bob