Attention: TDR Forum Junkies At 70k my ball joints on the driver's side were shot. After getting a quote from my local mechanic for $535 (one side), I decided to do it myself. Jeff Knight from the our local Mason-Dixon TDR chapter offer to help. Jeff, along w/ Ron Prothro (Wiredawg), and Larry Willard showed up to help out w/ the "little" project. First of all, It helps to have a left-handed person (Jeff) to beat on the front bolts of the bearing carrier. More on that later. Last night I removed the wheel, brake caliper, rotor, and axle nut and sprayed everything that looked like it needed it w/ penetrating oil. Fellow TDR member, ICEMAN, loaned me his 1" breaker bar and 1-13/16" socket to remove the axle nut. Pc. of cake (w/ a 4' cheater bar) so far. So, this morning, I loosen the bearing carrier bolts. Jeff showed up and we proceeded to beat on the ends of the bolts w/ a 12 pt. 5/8" socket w/ a 1-1/2" extention on it. I don't think Sears is going to warranty this one. LOL Jeff (left handed) beat on the 2 front bolts and I beat on the back bolts. 2 hours later, :--) w/ the help of Ron we finally got the bearing carrier(hub) off. This was two hours of solid beating. I'm not kidding. We pulled the axle out and got the ball joint press out to try and remove the ball joints. Of the course the ball joint press was not big enough. We got it to work, but there isn't enough space here to describe what it took. Let's just say that I think Sears will warranty the 1/2" rachet wrench that I will be bringing back to them. Can you said 4'cheater bar?
We didn't have the right fittings to fit the press, so we cut a 2-1/2" pipe nipple to the right angle to remove the bottom ball joint . I used a miter saw w/ a steel cut off blade. Got the ball joints out and the new ones in. Never under-estimate the value of a 2lb. hammer. We used lots of anti-sieze to install everything. We replaced the u-joint while I had everything a part. The original was fine, but once I had everything a part, I wasn't going to go through this again. The new u-joint has a grease fitting too. Put everything back together and there was a definite inprovement in the steering department. Would I do it again? Well, let me tell you. $535 is a deal if they do the job correctly. After we moved my truck out of the garage, Wiredawg installed BD2s in Jeff's truck and Jeff left to work the midnight shift. Can't thank the guys enough. I owe them. Sorry for the long post, but I figured I owed the guys some acknowledgement. 
Cheers
We didn't have the right fittings to fit the press, so we cut a 2-1/2" pipe nipple to the right angle to remove the bottom ball joint . I used a miter saw w/ a steel cut off blade. Got the ball joints out and the new ones in. Never under-estimate the value of a 2lb. hammer. We used lots of anti-sieze to install everything. We replaced the u-joint while I had everything a part. The original was fine, but once I had everything a part, I wasn't going to go through this again. The new u-joint has a grease fitting too. Put everything back together and there was a definite inprovement in the steering department. Would I do it again? Well, let me tell you. $535 is a deal if they do the job correctly. After we moved my truck out of the garage, Wiredawg installed BD2s in Jeff's truck and Jeff left to work the midnight shift. Can't thank the guys enough. I owe them. Sorry for the long post, but I figured I owed the guys some acknowledgement. Cheers
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. Needless to say everything got a good dose of anti-seize when it went back together. I did the ball joints and track-bar at the same time,and still needed a sky-jacker st. stabilizer to get the steering right(didn't have a problem til I put the 285's on). And a B. F. H. is a required tool on most any job
along with a cold beer
Maybe I'll post a picture of what it looked like afterwards. It was ugly. 
