cool, congrats on replacing your ball joints. im doing both sides of my dakota. 2003 4.7 2wd. all four control arms, Im replacing all ball joints and all 8 bushings. I called Dodge here where I live, 570.00$ for one lower control arm!!! The same for the other 3!! Yea, Id say you saved a pretty penny.

 

I have the top arm bushings but didn’t replace them in my last ball joint replacement project but they are in good shape not lose so it will get done probably next year sometime as I replace the passenger side ball joints that were still good this year.

 

Great post, I need to get a corded drill (my old one died and have been getting by with cordless but not for this)to do the exact same repair. I was looking at hammer drills. Since you've been through this do you think the hammer drill would be any better then a regular drill ?

 

So the nuts and bolts came with the ball joints? I've got a 01 Ram 4x2, looks like the same setup as your Dakota. It's getting ball joint time too. Did you torque the nuts down?

 

Did you torque the nuts down? yes

Nuts and bolts come with the ball joints but make sure they are in the box

Do you think the hammer drill would be any better than a regular drill? It may Im not sure I rented my drill 1\2 in Drill you need power thats for sure no whimpy drill

Check all the other posts on this its very informative.

 

Thanks for the answer, I guess it always best to get something with a little extra and if I don't need it its there for another time

 

Get the hammer drill if you can, i drilled with a 1/2" hammer drill first on regular drilling for about an 1/8" deep then switching to hammer mode,drilling about 3/4 through the rivet then upping the bit size, then hammered the rivets out with a pin punch. All seven for one side upper and lower took about 1 hour. The grinding took as long or longer, more to rest the hands a little than anything else.

 

A vid that helps 2WD






A vid that helps 4X4

 

Torque settings chart second gen Dak's

 

I finished replacing the passenger side ball joints finally with the same brand and I also replaced both sides top control arm bushings and new coil spring isolators this time but not the bottom control arm bushings. This will be my last front end suspension job except I will be buying new bottom control arms in two or three years those bushings still looked good this time.

The Ball joints are holding up just fine replacing the top control bushings made a big difference in bringing back that like new stiff front end feel.

All in all the only hard part is the rivets all the rest is not hard at all just a lot of work.