I bought one of those princess auto ujoint press/pullers for $50. will it press out 3rd gen ball joints on a solid axle?

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will i neeed another puller for the hub? what is everyone talking about using steering to remove hub/bearing assembly? why is it so hard to take off? isnt it 2 tapered roller bearings?

 

The easiest way to remove those hubs is back the four mounting bolts out a little ways. The bolts that hold the hub into the steering knuckle. Disconnect the tie rod and get a five pound sledge hammer and hit the crap out of the heads of them bolts until the hub comes loose. You will need to buy four new bolts for each side cause you will ruin the old ones.A puller wont even begin to get our hubs out. Poor design if you ask me but thats what we got. Hope this helps.

 

okay. so do this all before i remove knuckle off of axle? do this first then take knuckle and old ball joints out?

we dont have to disconnect brake line do we? can a guy just bungee strap the caliper somewhere and hang it?

 

Take your caliper off and hang it with some wire or whatever you got. You dont have todisconnect brake lines. Take off the caliper bracket and the brake dust shield. Also remove the ABS sensor. Loosen the four mounting bolts for the hub and disconnect the tie rod from the knuckle. Take your big hammer (preferrably brass) and knock the hub loose by hitting the heads of those bolts. Once its loose, take the bolts out and remove the hub from the steering knuckle. Remove the axle shaft. My repair manual says nothing about removing the knuckle from the axle for ball joint replacement. Same goes for passenger side as well. When you put everything back together, anti seize everything you can to make this easier next time. As far as the ujoint press working, I dont know if it will or not. Also, be careful with thepassenger side because the axle shaft on the passenger side is a two piece shaft and have been told it can be tricky getting it back in. I hope this helps, sorry such a long post.

 

A DIY has been done with pictures included just look at the top of the forum and open the repacking front wheel bearings DIY hopefully this will help you with any questions that you might have. The DIY takes you to removing the hubs the next thing that you would have to remove would be the Ball joints.