just wondering if these steps are the same for a dodge dakota 4x4 qc 2001?

i have all my own parts but never tried this type of maintenance before, so i am a bit hesitant to do it?

does not look that hard, but being non mechanically inclined does not help much!

 

yours are bolt in... take off top nut off the joint your swapping, using a picklefork to separate the steering knuckle to the ball joint, then unbolt it and swap it out. you will need an alignment when your done. I'd recommend doing all 4 of them since you need to get the alignment.

 

Thanks for the advice, my two top ones are in fact bolt on, but only because they have been replaced once before, before they were replaced they had to be ground off, but the top ones should be easy to replace correct?

what about the lowers? do i need to disconnect my cv joint? I read in the book and it says to diconnect the cv joint half shaft for some reason and i am not sure as to why?

 

you may need to have the extra room to move the steering knuckle out of the way for the swap. I would think you should be able to get enough room by popping out the axle at the diff housing and supporting the axle while removing the ball joint. I dont recall exactly how mine was set up so I'm not 100% sure, I never swapped my ball joints on the dakota. I would ask these questions n the Dakota forum and see what they say.

 

I've heard from my mechanic that a lot of times when doing balljoints on these trucks you also have to do the hubs as a lot of times they don't come apart all that well from the axle.

Is this true? If so where are you guys getting your hubs from?

 

I've done 3 sets of ball joints on 2 different trucks and never had to do a hub but I know some shops try a slide hammer to pull the hubs - that would require new hubs being purchased. This forum has been an incredible help for the ball joint replacement on these trucks.

 

I converted to the lockout style hubs. The 1st time I had to swap them they came out easy, put some anti seize on the hub surface before putting it back together and when I swapped the hubs over they popped right out.

I suggest you soak them from behind as best as you can with penetrating oil as long as you can before taking them out. Should help removal

 

I have done this job time and time again. Im an ex mechanic, i have never seen anyone use this method to take the hub off SO MUCH EASYIER. Great post!

 

Awesome post!!