hello, I'm trying to replace my upper ball joint. I have tried my ball joint press to the point it's about to bend If it hasn't already, pb blaster, map gas torch, pounding on the press, pounding around where the ball joint is seated, putting a jack under the press trying to help it push while banging on everything with a sledge hammer.... I let it soak overnight with the press still on hoping to get it loose. Any suggestions short of oxy acetylene? Thanks!

 

Thats because if you have a factory ball joint, that ball joint and upper control arm is one peice. You can not seperate them. You have to replace the whole thing. Now you can buy a aftermarket bj and uca that the bj can be seperated from the uca.

 

^ What he said...

 

If it's one piece I would have to replace the whole axle then? It's not a control arm, I have a 2500 4wd with solid front axle. Thanks for any input and ideas.
http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m...er_media_share

http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m...er_media_share


http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m...er_media_share

 

This sounds similar to my passenger side TRE....beat, bent, essentially wrecked the passenger side knuckle on my half ton for 4 hours while i was in there swapping ball joints and tie rod ends.....not until my union buddy showed up with a mobile oxy acetylene did we have it off in minutes. I'd say more heat, and get your breaker on the wrench on that ball joint kit and give her hell. It looks familiar, rental chinese crap from the parts house that came with 40 different adapters....might try the bottom cup that gives you a little more movement that the pyramid you have on there.

 

Had a really rough time getting the one's out on my 2005 3500 4x4, looks similar.
Do you have access to a HD Impact wrench? I used that to finally remove the bj without heat. Even that took a couple of times to reposition the adapters. Finally I made sure there was no binding adapters and said f'it...turned up the pressure to max for the impact wrench, used heat treated sockets and let 'er rip till it finally gave in. Be careful with the positioning of the adapters to make sure they are not obstructing the bj from being pressed out and that the bottom adapter is not hitting the knuckle. Was wishing I had oxy-acet torch...

 

Are the upper BJs on a 2500 not removable?

 

After a few more hours of heating, pressing, jacking, beating, penetrant, I finally got it to budge about an 1/8" just enough to just a large pipe wrench on the top. I applied pressure with a jack between the yokes while working the ball joint back and forth with the pipe wrench with a 4' pipe on it. Finally it slowly slide up and out.

So here is my conclusion: the original ball joint was pressed in at an angle at the factory. The one side of bittom edge of the ball joint housing was mashed against the inner yoke ear making a Large indentation and lump below which interlocked with the mashed up part of the ball joint housing.


The opposite side of ball joint housing had some scraping on it as well from being cocked when it was pressed in. So whoever installe it with however many tons of pressure realigned the mashed ball joint and just mashed it back down into the yoke... Now messing up an entire axle at factory (yoke is permenently attached to axle) is a Pretty big oops but ya think they coulda at least used a Fresh ball joint when trying again??

I figure dodge owes me a new press, jack, and the yoke/axle should probably be replaced.. I filed down the bulge in the inner yoke ear hoping the new ball joint stay pressed in there.... I'll see what they have to say, probably not much.. Here are some pictures of the messed up factory install. I knew I wasn't going insane!

You can see where the bottom edge of Mis-aligned ball joint caught the top inner edge of the yoke and mashed it down... Lotsa force to do that:

http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m...er_media_share

Here is the resulting bulge on the balljoint that interlocked in the yoke mashed up part. Yeah, I destroyed the top shoulder with a pipe wrench:

http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m...er_media_share

Here is a pic of both pieces with messed up parts side by side. Ball joint would obviously be flipped for install.

http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m...er_media_share

Here is the opposite side of yoke messed up from the ball joint going in at angle:

http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m...er_media_share

A Mis-aligned bad factory install on the ball joint is my obvious explanation. Any other thoughts?

 

Has anyone else ever experienced this?

 

on my 1500 they were built in, not sure about the 2500. The upper control arm & ball joint are pretty cheap i think 70 bucks for ea side & they come with ball joints that can be replaced. best prices for parts so far is

rockauto.com