Jack the front of your truck up.

Grab the tire at the bottom and top and see if you can rock it or wiggle it back and forth towards you.

If you can move it a little, your balljoints are going. If you can move it a LOT, your ball joints are almost gone.

There are more precise ways to check them, but that's the method I've always used.

 

well i think im getting myself into a bigger project than i was thinking. im doing the ball joints tonight. i didnt really wanna hafta take the whole axle shaft out, so im gunna see if i can rig it somehow to leave the axle shaft in. i just wanna get the damn things done. when im done ill let everyone know how it went. thanks for the help

 

Thanks, I think that I will take a look at that tonight and see what mine are like. I know that the little rubber boot on them have been torn so I figure that will accelerate the process at least a little.

 

In response to keeping the shafts in, i doubt you will be able to do that. As i remember, when i did mine the press just barely fit, to do the bottom joint, you have to press the top out first, and when doing the bottom the shaft of the press will go through the upper ball joint hole, and i beleive the u-joint would get in the way if you left the shaft in. Its not that hard to take it out, just keep it centered when you put it back in.

 

ya...didnt go so well...need a 1 3/4 socket to take the shaft out. so basically its a much bigger project than i thought it was gunna be. i gotta get the socket and then the only free time ill have is saturday. so any more help would be nice. and what do i do if the press doesnt wanna press the old joints out? because ive heard that they dont come out nicely. thanks alot guys

 

Once the press is applying pressure to the ball joints, and they don't want to come out, you can either take a hammer and give it a few whacks, or heat it with an acetylene torch, if you have one.

In response to Dodge4x4810, I'm also pretty sure the shafts have to come out, been awhile since I've done some, but as you said, the press ends up going thru one of the ball joint holes.

And I'm also pretty sure the axle nut is 1 11/16"...is probably the rust that's making a 1 3/4" fit alright...the socket I have at work is 1 11/16' and it's the only one I've used on a Ram front axle, don't even have a 1 3/4".

 

well i had a few mins...i got one of them big nuts off with a 1 3/4 socket and impact gun. took a little bit but it came off. now another question tho. are the axles c-cliped in, inside the differential? or should they just slide right out. i tried pullin the one out by hand but it didnt budge. do i need to take the differential cover off or no? and how do i go about taking the axle shafts out? thanks for all the help everyone. i appreciate it

 

After you take the axle nut off, rotor, and caliper, you have to take the hub off, can be pretty hard to get off, i used a puller and stuck a flathead scewdriver in the back to pry it loose. Then you have to take the axle shaft out (not c-cliped in), mine came out pretty easily, it actually slide out as i pulled the hub off (3 14mm 12pt. bolts in back). Then you can take the nuts out of the bottom of the ball joints in order to get the spindle out, i had to cut the bottom ball joint nut off (after i broke a socket on it), i used a dremel tool to cut it off. Then you can take the ball joints out, i used a press and a breaker bar and had to put all my weight into the breaker bar, you will hear it pop when it breaks loose, then it should slide out without alot of stress. Then you can put the new ball joints in, you have to pay close attention to the alignment of the joints as they go in, i found the bottom joint to go in pretty smoothly, but it took some time to get the top joint aligned correctly. Also, not sure if was mentioned before, but you can go to AutoZone and rent pullers, torque wrenches, etc. and when you bring the tools back you get all your money back. There is a good tech article: http://pavementsucks.com/tech/balljoint.php