I had my 2003 2WD Quad Cab in the shop today for tire rotation and front end alignment, they told me that they could not do an alignment because my front lower ball joints are going bad. They quoted me $900 for this job.

How hard is it to replace them? Do I have to replace the control arm? Or does the ball joint press in? I have 130,000 miles on my truck.

Thanks
Mark

 

Your ball joints on a 03 are pressed into the control arms. Its pretty easy to get them out, its not as easy to get them back in if you dont have a ball joint press...

 

Ok which way do they press in and out?

I assume I can rent a press to put them in? I have never done this job before.

 

I have replaced the lowers on a Ram truck. It was not to bad. You can do it with the A-frame on the truck. I rented a puller from a tool rental place. Parts store will loan them if they have one.
Get a service manual to see how.
The tool I used pushed them out and puled them in.
PS I think there is a manual you can down load in the sticky section.

 

I just replaced lower ball joints, upper control arms and tie rod ends a week ago. It is not that hard but time consuming. You will need a press. Like mentioned before you can rent them from the auto parts store. They made me pay full price until I returned it. lol.

 

Thanks Guys,

I have been looking at the online box stores, and all I can find are the bolt on type for the lower 2WD. The ones that I see online are the type that have bolts with them, so I guess I would have to bust off the rivits and hammer them out?

 

You know what? You are right. I just looked. It shows yours are bolt on. Man you are lucky other than the drilling involved. lol. With those you have to drill out the old rivets.

Should look like this.

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web...R%7CGRPCHASAMS_____

 

You have air tools at home? It's not a fun job without an air chisel and impact gun. Turns a 2-hour job into an all-day job.

 

I did my own ball joints on my truck. It was not easy but not super hard either. It takes time, patience and having the right tools for the job. When I did my lowers I posted about it here and included a few pics:

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...to-w-pics.html

I would say be sure to use a good quality part like Moog or TRW. Stay away from the cheap ebay/Chinese made junk. I would also say do the uppers while you have it all apart. When I put that post on here I had done my lowers only, I left the OE uppers in place and wound up having to take it all back apart again just 4 months later to replace the uppers. I should have done all 4 and been done with it, but oh well that's how it went. The uppers were a lot easier to drill out and remove than the lowers for some reason. Maybe because I knew what to expect and there is more room to work on the uppers.

The uppers don't take near as much abuse as the lowers, so I used Duralast uppers, they cost about half what the TRW uppers cost. TRW makes the Duralast brand of ball joints for Autozone anyway. All 4 of mine have been doing just fine since I replaced all 4 ball joints, my steering is still nice and tight almost like a new truck. All 4 ball joints are greaseable, and I grease them every time I change my oil and/or rotate my tires.

It's not too bad of a job. Take your time, be patient with it, have fun and do it right. Plus you will save a load of cash and get the satisfaction of doing the job yourself instead of paying a shop to do it. Be sure to take your truck to a good tire shop for an alignment when you are done.

Jimmy

 

I replaced all 4 of mine a few months back and it wasn't fun but not that bad either. A local shop quoted me like $490 for 7hrs labor if I supplied the ball joints. I came home and done it in my drive way. Took me 6hrs to replace all 4, I used a grinder and ground the rivets flush with the control arm then drilled with a 3/16 bit then a 5/16 bit, took a 3/8 drive pen and hammer and tapped what was left out.