Hi everyone,

Need to replace my wheel hub, lower ball joint and outter tie rod. I picked up the Harbor Freight Ball joint kit.

First step I took out the Wheel Hub assembly. Took some major hammering with a sledge and 5 pound hammer and spraying but I was able to get it off. I also had a 3 finger puller to use for the hub, but the CV male portion that comes thru that hub went out very easy.

Ok, so now I am upto the lower ball joint. I can't seem to get the CV axle male portion out of the hole far enough so I can use the harbor freight kit. There just isn't enough room to get it done.

Does anyone have any advice here? If I can get the cv male end out of the way I can press out the lower ball joint. The dealer replaced my upper ball joints 40k ago so I didn't think I needed to replace those.

 

I'd just use a hammer drill and chisel the rivet off. I have to do mine soon.

SJ02

 

Lower ***** joints on 4x4 do not have any rivets. The upper ball joints have rivets and if they dealer serviced them via the recall they will not have rivets.

 

Remove the tie rod end and then you can turn the steering knucle toward the radiator as far as it will go and the CV end back toward the rear and it will pop out.

Easy as pie!


Also heads up, some of the lower ball joints have a lock ring around them that you have to remove before knocking them out.

 

Well got the job done. I ended up taking the upper ball joint 3 bolts out and just dropped the the knuckle.

1st Lower ball joints was a beast to get out. The harbor freight press started to bend so I then heated up the area with map gas for sweating pipes, then hammered it with a 5 lbs hammer. ball joint started to come out with ease! The second ball joint I hit with heat then press then hammer super quick slipped our. I used the hf press to push it back in after coating it with anti sieze. At the shop getting aligned now.

 

I was looking at my ball joints this past weekend while changing the wheel hubs and shock absorbers. BOTH the top and bottom ball joints have rivets on mine! I have the ball joints already, but when I saw that, I'll wait for another weekend to tackle that. D@MN!

Last time I was getting parts from the Stealer, they said I had 3 recalls against my VIN. I know one of them deals with it coming out of gear (or going into gear), but don't know what the other 2 pertain to. Next oil change, I'm taking it to them to rectify all 3. Hope 1 is the ball joints. SEG

SJ02

 

What year is your truck smokin? I have a 2000 4.7 4x4 I think the only recall I had was the upper ball joints. Its easy to drill out those 3 rivets on the top.

Call them and get some details and share with the rest of us.

 

02 DURANGO 4X2 SPORT SXT

I'll follow up when I get the details, but since it's the 4X2, I doubt mine were included in the recall. We shall see.

SJ02

 

@fcastro i just did and still am in the process of changing all my cvs tie rods ball joints pads and rotors and already changed both hubs on my 99 durango 4x4 and i have to say for a diy it wasnt too bad but my driver upper ball joint broke and the whole wheel fell off causing it to yank out my tie rod and break the lower ball joint and ripped out the cv so i was up against a hell of a project but with a few hundred while ur already under there you might as well do both sides like im doing so you dont have to keep tearing down the front end...i spent a little over 500 on everything while a mechanic told me over 1000$ to fix just that one side so on rockauto you should just order everything slap it all on and be done....the cv though is only like 6 bolts all you gotta do is take that out then replace everything put the cv on last...hope that helps you with your question...and i did my ball joints without a bj kit lol

 

The CV on the 4.7 4x4 is different then the 99. My CV joint is exactly the same as a saab 9.3. Ha I know this after doing them over the winter, sucked.

I had the dealer do my upper ball joints under the recall 5 years ago. But I should have in retro spec done them as well. I'll see if at the end of the summer I can squeeze that in.

I'll also mention I got an impact gun, that thing made that spindle hub nut a cinch to remove.