Lower Ball Joint Replacement How To (lots of Pictures)

[JHT]

Both are out! Off to Kragen tomorrow to get the press. Hope to have it all buttened up by end of day tomorrow.

 

[CDW6212R]

FYI, the real trick to doing ball joints(bottom/spindle) is to not use any fork. The heck with that.

Find a large sledge hammer, not a light hammer, not a framing hammer, a sledge hammer. It needs to be at least 4 pounds. Get the ball joint nut loose, not off, only loose with about 1/8" gap to the joint.

Find plenty of room to swing the sledge on the back side of the spindle. There is only one place that needs to be hit, and that is the adjacent portion of the spindle next to the ball joint. That sweet spot sticks out from the spindle, the spindle protrudes inward from the joint. The big chunk sticking out is made specifically to be hit with a sledge. The force at that spot makes the spindle around the ball joint flex, and squeezes out the BJ.

 

[dean1997sport]

are you talking about this spot here?

 

[dean1997sport]

FYI, the real trick to doing ball joints(bottom/spindle) is to not use any fork. The heck with that.

Find a large sledge hammer, not a light hammer, not a framing hammer, a sledge hammer. It needs to be at least 4 pounds. Get the ball joint nut loose, not off, only loose with about 1/8" gap to the joint.

Find plenty of room to swing the sledge on the back side of the spindle. There is only one place that needs to be hit, and that is the adjacent portion of the spindle next to the ball joint. That sweet spot sticks out from the spindle, the spindle protrudes inward from the joint. The big chunk sticking out is made specifically to be hit with a sledge. The force at that spot makes the spindle around the ball joint flex, and squeezes out the BJ.

Does it really work?

 

[CDW6212R]

Yep, that's the sweet spot. It should be extremely rare to not have it come apart if you hit it there, hard enough. Don't waste any time trying to hit it with any smaller hammer. You can swing a bunch easier with a sledge and have the BJ come loose, than any light hammer. You can have the strongest guy you know hit it with a normal hammer and not do anything, except maybe miss and hurt something.

Just get a real sledge hammer(baby sledge works fine), and smack it good once or twice. Be sure that the nut is still on the BJ, you don't want it to fall apart. Regards,

 

[dean1997sport]

Cool I will give that a try!

 

[JHT]

One last question - how critical is it to follow Moog's instruction to mount the BJ 'so the words MOUNT INBOARD are facing directly away from the wheel assembly'? No one has mentioned that in this thread. Please don't ask why I'm asking the question now.

 

[CDW6212R]

I only vaguely recall those words. I think the rubber boot was the only thing to orient with a tiny vent hole inboard, or something like that. Was that detail in this thread, I did mine without help.

 

[CPUNeck]

You may or may not have noticed that right where the words were printed on the rubber boot, there was a slight void in the boot. This is where the excess grease will escape when the boot is over filled, or the joint is cycled close to it's extent. Obviously it is better for the grease to squeeze out AWAY from the rotating/friction surfaces, and toward a place where you can see it actually coming out and the opportunity to clean it off. If you flubbed it up, just be aware of how much grease your adding to the joint so your not dumping copious amounts of grease in a place you can't see or get to easily. Should be fine.

 

[storlied]

Yeah, you don't want any of that extra grease going straight into the brakes somehow...

 

[JHT]

Thanks all, you saved me some time and I'll just watch the grease. It's time to button everything up and return the press. This took a lot longer than I expected, but everything does these days. Since I'm retired and time is money, I saved a bundle. Many thanks for the initial thread and ongoing updates. If I can do this, anyone can.

John

 

[dean1997sport]

Ok I got mine out in 3 hours!
The hardest part was not getting the old one out it was putting the new one in. The steel collar would not sit on the ball joint square and the jack trick did not work.
What I did was just use the adapter with the large hole and just put the balljoint through the hole and used the c clamp with the cylinder on the top and it worked.
But I was wondering if there was any way i could have damaged the ball joint?

The collar pushed on the ball joint indicated by the red arrow (i know its not a ford balljoint I couldn't find a pic)

Oh and hitting it at the sweetspot worked I think I hit it like 3 times and it came off.

 

[prcrawfo]

Using the jack for reinstalation would have saved me about 25 minutes of wondering if i had my ball joint press on correctly! Wish i joined this forum two weeks ago! I just replaced all four ball joints!! If i have to do it on any car again i wont hesitate though because i saved $950 by doing it myself over a shop.

 

[mcwykoff]

Great post.

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to change my passenger side lower ball joint today, so I took some pictures as I went for the benefit of others.

Start by going to Auto Zone and getting their loan a tool ball joint press. I was charged $99 + Tax for the one I had, but all that is returned when you return the tool. A pretty good deal.

I highly recommend Moog suspension parts, they appear to be far superior to others.

As always, begin by parking the truck on a flat level surface and set the parking brake.

Pop the center cap, loosen the lug nuts, remove the CV axle nut. A 32mm socket is needed. Jack up the front end, support it with a jack stand.

Remove the brake caliper, it is held on by 2 15mm bolts, they should be very tight. Hang the caliper from a piece of wire or zip tie, never let it hang from the brake hose.

Remove the dust shield, it is held on by 3 8mm bolts.

Then remove the ABS sensor bolt, then remove the bolt in the clip that holds the wire to the knuckle.

Remove the cotter pin from the tie rod end, then remove the castle nut.

Knock the ball joint loose from the knuckle and tie it up out of the way.

Remove the cotter pin from the lower ball joint and remove the castle nut.

Remove the pinch bolt at the top of the knuckle, it takes two 15mm wrenches. A punch may be needed to knock the bolt out. A swift whack upwards with a hammer on the upper control arm will help break it free.

With that, the knuckle should come free, if not a few blows with a hammer should free it. Remove the knuckle, leaving the hub assembly on it.

Tie the CV axle out of the way, or remove it. I chose to leave mine in place so that I didn't loose any gear oil out of the front diff.

With that out of the way, remove the snap ring. Needle nose pliers work, but special pliers are made especially for snap rings.

Remove the grease Zerk and set the press in place. The lower collar should go around the outside of the ball joint, the end or tip of the ball joint should go through the hole in the bottom plate. Penetrating oil may help if your parts are rusty or corroded.

A 22mm wrench fit the hex top of the press perfectly, I had to use a cheater wrench to pull the bolt around to press the joint down.

You can see in this picture the joint is moved down slightly.

After it got going, it went pretty easily-

Thats it! The old ball joint is out.

To install the new one, leave the Zerk off for now. Find the collar that fits just on the outside edge of the ball joint. Put the round plate with the larger hole at the bottom of the collar. Under that plate put the largest collar. It seems strange, but when you see what it does, it will make sense.

Start the ball joint into the arm, put the collar assembly against the bottom, then raise a jack up, pushing up on the ball joint. Raise the jack enough to load the suspension, then with a hammer, tap the arm, my ball joint went right into place. Make sure the snap ring groove is fully visible.

Notice the use of a jackstand to support the truck.

I also try to put the tire I remove under the truck in a place where if the truck falls for some reason, it won't fall flat on the ground.

Snap ring and grease Zerk installed.

Slip the CV axle splines in the hub, then put the lower ball joint through the knuckle, start the castle nut.

Put the upper ball joint in the knuckle, slip the pinch bolt through, tighten the upper bolt up, then the lower nut and install the cotter pin.

Put the tie rod end back through the knuckle, tighten the nut and install the cotter pin.

Put the ABS sensor back in the hub, tighten the bolt that holds it in. Put the clip on the back of the knuckle that holds the ABS wire as well. Install the dust shield.

Put the rotor back on the hub, reinstall the caliper. Make certain to tighten the bolts very tight. Some blue locktite is a good idea as well.

Put the wheel back on the studs, tighten the lug nuts as tight as possible with the wheel off the ground. Start the CV axle nut.

Raise the truck to take the weight off of the jackstand, remove the jackstand, lower the jack.

Tighten the CV axle nut, it should be very tight, use a breaker bar to torque it.

Tighten the lug nuts and replace the center cap.

Thats it!

The tools I used:

I have received several PM's and e-mails thanking me for this write up, I appreciate them all. Please feel free to continue to do so but also remember this:

The best thing you can do to show your appreciation is spend $20 and be an elite member. All these pictures and pages have to be hosted somewhere, web hosting and site software all cost money. None of this would be possible without Rick's time, efforts and money.......

http://www.explorer4x4.com/elite.html

 

[mcwykoff]

Great post. Saved me tons of time. Nothing was confusing and the jack trick worked perfectly. Took your advice and joined the elite. Was the least AI could do. THANKS

 

[ThePhoenix]

is it REALLY necessary to quote all the pix and what not to say "Great Post"? but welcome to our forum....

 

[GRNMACHINE]

FANTASTIC post. Thanks!! Done. Ford balljoints are incredibly inferior to MOOG. NO more squeaky bedsprings/stryofoam noise over bumps. Thanks MountaineerGreen.

 

[mstrmp3]

Great post. Some things that worked for me:

A) don't try to take the axel nut off while the truck is in the air.
b) just remove the brake pads from the caliper, trying to take the caliper bracket and caliper off without removing the pads just results in taking off the caliper and the rotor at the same time.
c) when removing the tie rod end, just whack the end of the stud without the castle nut with a 3lb sledge. If you try to hit the stud with the castle nut on backwards and flush with the base of the stud, you're just going to f*&k up the threads.
d) the jack trick when putting the new one back in is the easiest. yes, it does jack up the truck a little, but just whack around the opening where the joint goes thru the LCA, and the joint will pop right in.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

Great post. Some things that worked for me:

A) don't try to take the axel nut off while the truck is in the air.
b) just remove the brake pads from the caliper, trying to take the caliper bracket and caliper off without removing the pads just results in taking off the caliper and the rotor at the same time.
c) when removing the tie rod end, just whack the end of the stud without the castle nut with a 3lb sledge. If you try to hit the stud with the castle nut on backwards and flush with the base of the stud, you're just going to f*&k up the threads.
d) the jack trick when putting the new one back in is the easiest. yes, it does jack up the truck a little, but just whack around the opening where the joint goes thru the LCA, and the joint will pop right in.

A) If you don't loosen the nut on the ground and don't have an impact, sometimes the nut can't be loosened off without the tire/wheel/diff spinning.

B) I didn't have that problem at all, if you remove the pads from the caliper and don't re-install them the same way, the pads won't be "bedded in" anymore.

C) If you hit the stud with a hammer and no nut, it is waaaay more likely to mess up the threads than with the nut on there. If you only have to hit it once, it may be OK that way, but if it's stuck, the nut needs to be on there to protect the threads. It's the way of profeshional mechanics.

D) You are absolutely correct.

 

[Glen4X4]

Awesome write up, I plan on doing all 4 of mine and the Haynes manual didn't help, figured someone here did a write up and its deff. going to help, don't have a local AZ so I'm just going to try it the way you did it the first time you replaced yours. Thanks for the writeup Evan, its definitely going to help me now.