Replacing ball joints

[Simon]

When replacing U-joints and ball joints on my 96 do I have to remove the hole front end to have NAPA press the new joints in or is there some tool a guy to use?

 

[pcorssmit]

You just have to remove the knuckles. You can leave the housing in place. You'll have to remove the wheel/tire, caliper, big nut (1 11/16 socket?) on the end of the shaft, the 4 bolts (14/15 mm socket?) that hold the rotor/hub/bearing on (from the back side), the inner/outer shaft assy, the ball joint nuts, then the knuckles should come off with a little persuation with the BFH. Prolly a few more things need to be removed, but you get the idea.



Pete

 

[cumminsgetme]

You can rent/borrow a ball joint press from auto zone. You leave them a deposit (I think around $35??), when you bring it back they return the deposit.

 

[illflem]

If you have a big enough vice you can use it in combination with appropriate size sockets as the press and hole to push the bearings into. If you can't do it yourself run up the road to Valley Tractor, they'll do it while you wait for a minimal charge.

 

[pcorssmit]

Yeah, I did mine at home with whatever junk I had laying around, have done a few trucks this way. Sometimes you get lucky, and somtimes its a real PITA. Makes you appreciate king pins.



Pete

 

[Iredman]

Ball joint mystery.....

Whats the low down on the upper and lower ball joints on the 1 tons with the a arm front independant suspention? The last time I was at the dealer just for S&G I asked about upper and lower ball joint and the parts person informed me that there where two kinds weld in and pressed in. There was nothing to seperate one from the other but some had one and some had the other. So what gives. This dramatically increases the cost of the front end rebuild task at about $200 per arm for the welded assembly. From what i could tell I had the pressed in but its sort of hard to tell as silly as that may sound. Another question since we are talking about front ends, about 2 or 3 years ago those guys on the cable show "Shade Tree Mech" were rebuilding the front end in a s-10 blazer and they mentioned ball jointsand other bushings ect made by Dana/Spicer that had heavier boots ect. As well they said that they bought them from NAPA, but i asked my local NAPA and they didn't have the fogiest idea what i was talking about. Ha anybody used these and if so were they better than OEM and where did you perchase them. Thanks T-D