I'm going to be replacing my upper ball joints this weekend. Any tips or words of wisdom I should follow? Thanks.

 

I just replaced my upper and lower Ball joints on the drivers side last week first a good set of jack stands then a good floor jack two if you can borrow one make sure you have all the tools and that the ball joints came with the needed bolts and nuts.

Here is the guide I used for upper ball joints it says Durango but its the same http://www.rp95.com/BJ_replacement.pdf


lower are the harder to replace are you replacing them or only the upper?

Why only uppers remember to do the bottom ball joint later you will need to pop louse the top ball joints again that means damaging the upper ball joint boots that means trashing them that is why I did both at the same time upper and lower unless you use the special ball joint remover tool the fork will trash the boots.

The reason you do this is to have the room to get at the super strong rivet’s you need that room believe me.


If you feel the need for help send me and email here http://www.rp95.com/hello.html and I will get back to you ASAP.

 

You dont have to damage the boot to break the ball joint at a later date, just use a press. Not as common, or inexpensive as a pickle fork, so yea...If you dont have a BFH and a pickle fork, you should be able to rent them from an Autozone etc.

I would recommend doing both at the same time. Im actually hunting down control arm bushings, as they will get done too. They are actually worse than any others...hard to find though.

 

The press type do not work as well as the fork and only work in areas of good access so in tight cramped areas like the upper ball joint they don’t F-ing work as well so don’t count on them getting the job done my POINT.
Doing both at the same time saves time and some money.

my choice was easy the driver side ball joints were the lose ones passenger side still in good shape but bad ball joint BOOTS so I cracked the passenger side lose cleaned out the old boots and junk in the joints and slathered high quality grease inside the new boots installed new BOOTS that I purchased here
http://www.energysuspensionparts.com/Energy-Suspension-Universal-Dust-Boots.asp reinstaled the joint nuts and pins bingo my front end is in great shape for about three or more years.

I know the passenger side ball joints will need replacing but now I can wait a few years but my driver side are good for about 7 years.

If you want to tighten up the front end even more for a few $$ get new Front Sway Bar end Links like here http://www.energysuspensionparts.com...d=MOOG%2DK7274 but find the cheaper ones for about $20 a piece grabed mine at OReilly auto.

Remember when replacing a ball joint unless you get lucky you will need a front end alignment done after the job is done.

Also the boots and sway bar links you need depend on your model Dakota the ones shown fit my truck a Base 1998 Dakota with the 2.5L engine.

 

Ok, so, I've been giving some thought and I figure that if I'm going to be working on my front end suspension I might as well do as much as I can while in there. I figure this:

-New upper and lower control arms
-New bushings and bolts
-New front springs w/ insulators
-New sway bar links

Am I missing anything? I'm pretty much looking to rebuild the front end.

 

why replace the control arms?

 

Way too expensive to do and a big waste of time and money you don’t need to do that big a job simplify my man keep it simple.

Ball joints $200 tops
Springs $200 tops
Links $60 tops

Sweat 5 gallons pain minimal accomplishments rewarding

Unless you have a bad bushing why replace them or the control arms?

 

That is a very good point. Simple. Basically, if it ain't broke don't fix it. Ok then so it's:

-Ball joints
-Springs
-Links

Do I need any special tools for the springs or links? I've got pretty much all I need for the ball joints already.

 

there's a couple ways on doing springs, you casn either have a jack under the LCA with the body on stands, and lower the LCA, or put a spring compressor on the spring. BC IIRC the LCA will still be under spring tension even at full droop?

When I do mine, i'm gonna put V8 coils in it.

 

Your truck may be different than my 1998 Dakota with the 2.5L manual trans but I tried the spring compressor first and it kept slipping off the springs with a loud noise and scared the hell out of me did it three times so I tried the drop down with a good floor jack method and that worked just great. Use the floor jack worked the best.

You need a strong powered corded drill 1/2'' to drill out the rivits big *** sledge hammer punches chisels basic tools just go here for uppers http://www.rp95.com/BJ_replacement.pdf go here for bottom https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...to-w-pics.html

All info needed in those the top says Durango but same as Dakota.