Ball Joint Removal Hints / Tips

I was searching for a DIY for ball joint replacement but couldn't find much on the subject. All I found were a few stories about the mounting point for the ball joints breaking when they were removed.

Can anyone provide some hints / tips as to how to replace the ball joints?

Buy a new spindle from the dealer and a ball joint. That way when you can't get the old ball joint out and the spindle cracks you have a new one and realize it would have been faster and cheaper to just replace both in the first place.

Ball joints around $30.00 spindle is around $130.

I talked about this when I had one replaced and we ended up getting a spindle. I think the spindle is called a knuckle in the book

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/ball-joint-replacement-186404.html

^Yes and no. I assure you, those of us in southern California with 100% soCal cars have a very different experience with rust and seizure.

Benny where are you from? If you from the land of rust, do as MaxC said but consider doing it yourself if you are going to replace the whole spindle/knuckle as he advises. I did a good walkthough (link below). Its not a LGT but its pretty good as far as showing the different hand tools you can use to disassemble. I was able to reuse all by joints as I did no damage to their boots during this bbk install (which required a spindle/knuckle swap and the Moog stuff was only a year old at that point... Admittedly, it was a east-coast truck so I paid to get the moog stuff put in originally )

http://www.dakota-durango.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150929

I have just purchased my car, which has spent its whole life in Austin, Texas...No rust anywhere. I am about to subject it to its first northern Michigan winter.

My uncertainty about the procedure is more about the procedure of removing the ball joint from the spindle. Would anyone care to elaborate on this?

Also, can I get a torque spec for retightening the new ball joint in the spindle (and for the control arm bushings, perhaps)?

1. I like to take out the pinch bolt from the knuckle. Get a BMFH (big mofo hammer) wale on the control arm (undo the sway bar first!!) get the ball joint out of the knuckle.

2.Than loosen bolt holding the ball joint to the control arm, but leave the nut threaded on a bit and put a jack or something to support the bolt, than hammer on the control arm again and it should seperate the ball joint from the control arm.

3.Than you basically swing the control arm ENOUGH that you can get the balljoint out and the new one back in.

Clean the inside hole of the knuckle and apply grease on either end of the balljoint. Proceed to bolt everything back into place as it was originally found.

This is how I do it on a driveway.

1. I like to take out the pinch bolt from the knuckle. Get a BMFH (big mofo hammer) wale on the control arm (undo the sway bar first!!) get the ball joint out of the knuckle.

 

2.Than loosen bolt holding the ball joint to the control arm, but leave the nut threaded on a bit and put a jack or something to support the bolt, than hammer on the control arm again and it should seperate the ball joint from the control arm.

 

3.Than you basically swing the control arm ENOUGH that you can get the balljoint out and the new one back in.

 

Clean the inside hole of the knuckle and apply grease on either end of the balljoint. Proceed to bolt everything back into place as it was originally found.

 

This is how I do it on a driveway.

By using this or very similar method I have found that it takes longer to get the car on stands and remove wheels than it does to perform the swap. This being said though as gravity is my nemesis.