Lower Ball Joint Replacement How To (lots of Pictures)

[DBNathan]

you can replace just the ball joints

 

[wffcatron]

you can replace just the ball joints

Thanks a ton man.

 

[OutofDate1980]

Hey everybody. I'm just checking to make sure I understand this correctly. I have a stock 1998 Ranger 4x4. Can I go ahead and replace the upper and lower ball joints alone or do I have to get whole new aftermarket control arms to do so? I've ready (very quickly) in some places that you can't replace factory ones but after reading part of this post I think I can just replace the BJs.

Speaking from the view of a 1997 Ford Explorer:
The stock lower BJ's can be replaced independent of the CA's. The stock upper BJ's will need a new CA. Many replace the stock UCA with ones that allow for the replacement of just the BJ.

 

[imp]

Bent Knuckle?

Long, helpful thread! Don't think anyone touched on my problem. Bought a '98 AWD, 5.0L, guy slid off the road, hit an embankment of earth from underneath the front suspension, right side worst, alloy rim there runs out 1/4-inch, not cracked. Wheels were visibly towed-out, driveable, camber both sides acceptable, caster R.H. side low, as though LCA (LB joint) had moved backward. Wheelbase R.H. side 3/4-inch less than L.H. side. Air bags did NOT deploy. Rack & pinion seem fine, no leaks. L.H. tie-rod was bent upward just a bit. R.H. straight.

Thought first, rear LCA bracket bent inward, measurements comparing it's mooring, angle, etc., compared with L.H. side. Then, noted front inner LCA bushing bolt was off-center, which moved BJ back. Figured the LBJ was possibly destroyed, noted the INNER brake pad surface of the rotor had been rubbing the curved edge of the LCA. Other side has 1/2" clearance there. Bought a new LCA assembly complete. Proceeding to remove knuckle and LCA as an assembly, no problems.

Now the "rub" comes in. Loosened LBJ in it's tapered socket in knuckle, cannot remove knuckle, curved upper surface of outer lip of LCA will not clear knuckle opening, by quite a bit. I torch-cut the very edge off the old LCA, carefully, which allowed the parts to separate. I thought the old BJ had been damaged to cause the interference, but new LCA BJ cannot be made to enter hole in knuckle. Comparing dimensions & angles of the RH knuckle with LH (which is still on truck, of course), cannot perceive the knuckle being bent. If it is, I think it is in the area of the 2 vertical portions which form the "window" for the BJ.

Anyone think the knuckle itself could be bent? Mighty strong part compared to the flimsy stamped parts of the rest of the suspension. Anyone think a steel knuckle can be press-straightened? That's going to be my "look-see" tomorrow morning.

Thoughts on this would be appreciated! imp

 

[CDW6212R]

I suggest replacing everything which you can tell is bent. If there is a question about the frame being bent, I'd have an alignment shop that does frame work to check it.

The spindles can be bent, but as said not likely. I have one that appears to be off just enough to keep the alignment from being perfect.

Start with the frame check, then you can better guess what part may need to go next.

 

[Country dad]

Here is my question to this, I Have a 2000 ford explore Sport. Vin X. I see I can buy the lower ball joints and I think I can buy just the lower bushing for the control arm. But can I buy and replace just the upper ball joint, all the stores are telling me is that I have to replace the hole Top a arm that includes buching and the ball joint. Is this true? Or can I just get the ball joints and bushing for the top too?

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Upper control arms and ball joints are one piece-balljoints can not be replaced on them.

 

[imp]

Bent Knuckle

Upper control arms and ball joints are one piece-balljoints can not be replaced on them.

I have heard upper control arms are being manufactured by someone, having replaceable ball joints, for this vintage of Explorers, I cannot say who is making them, however.

Having given this only a few days time to be read, I can say at this point that the steering knuckle was indeed bent. Appropriate support on parallels and application of 20 tons to it's center, across the upper wheel hub bolt holes, brought the "tophat" 1/8-inch away from the control arm edge. 30 tons yielded 3/8-inch, which I deemed sufficient; that's about what the undamaged side has. Next problem: the torsion bar cannot be inserted into it's socket at the rear. More on this next time. imp

 

[Hartman]

Just did these on my truck. I do not think the lower balljoints were stock and as a result the balljoint press was not much help. Instead, I heated the metal on the outside of the balljoint and basically beat them out with a few firm blows from a ball peen hammer. They came out quite easily.

Before I started, I put the new balljoints in the freezer overnight. With the control arm already heated, the frozen balljoints went right in using the floor jack method.

 

[Evan6ardner]

lower knuckle not just: "Sliding off"

I have beat the hell out of the knucle after getting the top joint removed. I have PB blastered it. I attempted to use a tie-rod separator and then a ball joint separator fork. Nothing is working here. The knuckle will not come away from the bolt joint at the bottom of my 2001 Sport Trac.

Any ideas? I just torched the bolt thinking it'd expand and then when it contracts, I'll try again. I'm out of ideas though. I'll have to reassemble everything in defeat, after having mangled the lower ball joint boot of course.

 

[cadmunky]

I have beat the hell out of the knucle after getting the top joint removed. I have PB blastered it. I attempted to use a tie-rod separator and then a ball joint separator fork. Nothing is working here. The knuckle will not come away from the bolt joint at the bottom of my 2001 Sport Trac.

Any ideas? I just torched the bolt thinking it'd expand and then when it contracts, I'll try again. I'm out of ideas though. I'll have to reassemble everything in defeat, after having mangled the lower ball joint boot of course.

Might help to just put the torch on the boss around the ball joint shaft. Took me two hours of banging with a mini sledge and a pickle fork, and two minutes with the torch and a whack.

 

[Evan6ardner]

Might help to just put the torch on the boss around the ball joint shaft. Took me two hours of banging with a mini sledge and a pickle fork, and two minutes with the torch and a whack.

I did torch it. I finally got it out, but instead I had to use a two armed pulley puller. I put the two arms of the puller around the bottom of the knuckle, and was able to pull the knuckle away from the ball joint bolt. It popped like a gun shot. There was no way in hell that was coming out any other way. Same story with the tie rod: "BANG!" and then I checked myself for holes.

Seriously, I have never had a case where you just "pound the knuckle with a sledge and it'll pop right out" succeed. I think once a car is over 100k miles (my 2001 Sport Trac is 190k, my 1994 300zx is 130k) there is little chance it'll just ease its way out.

 

[CDW6212R]

The sledge is the best way to do it, but it does take some experience/practice.

The trick is a big sledge hammer, and a 4lbs baby sledge will work. It really can't be done without the big mass of the sledge, any light hammer shouldn't do it.

If you haven't done it before, you will think it's a light weight job, just tap it hard enough that you don't hurt it.

That will not work, you absolutely must hit it as hard as you can while making sure to not miss the spindle. You take all the time as needed to get in the right position, laying doing or being able to swing both arms fully. You get where you need to be, to be able to swing the sledge very hard onto the spindle(ball joint bulge).

You have to hit that bulge with enough force to compress that steel. It takes the real sledge and its mass and a hard hit to be able to deflect that metal.

Once you get used to being able top hit the spindle in that way, you will be able to pop the BJ out in less than 10 seconds, or a minute or two at the most. No other tools or methods will ever work that quickly. Grab the sledge and smack the #### out of it.

 

[Evan6ardner]

The sledge is the best way to do it, but it does take some experience/practice.

The trick is a big sledge hammer, and a 4lbs baby sledge will work. It really can't be done without the big mass of the sledge, any light hammer shouldn't do it.

If you haven't done it before, you will think it's a light weight job, just tap it hard enough that you don't hurt it.

That will not work, you absolutely must hit it as hard as you can while making sure to not miss the spindle. You take all the time as needed to get in the right position, laying doing or being able to swing both arms fully. You get where you need to be, to be able to swing the sledge very hard onto the spindle(ball joint bulge).

You have to hit that bulge with enough force to compress that steel. It takes the real sledge and its mass and a hard hit to be able to deflect that metal.

Once you get used to being able top hit the spindle in that way, you will be able to pop the BJ out in less than 10 seconds, or a minute or two at the most. No other tools or methods will ever work that quickly. Grab the sledge and smack the #### out of it.

I'm going to remain incredulous until I see someone follow up after me and do exactly what they say. I had a 3lb sledge (not a little 12oz house hold hammer), and whacked that thing from all sorts of directions. After beating the spindle from the top knuckle connection, I tried doing it on the sides, etc. I hit that thing so hard that I needed to put ear protection on.

When these joints come undone like a gun shot with so much stored energy as they give way to the pullers, I can't fathom anyone picking up the same 3 lb sledge I used and hitting it in a magical spot that did anything different. Of course, now the world may never know since the puller worked. =)

 

[Hartman]

Every truck is different. On my old truck, which saw countless winters, I never had a problem getting the top bolt out and the balljoint disconnected. With my current truck, I had to beat the ever living crap out of it. Heat is key too.

 

[CDW6212R]

The top BJ connection is a different animal of course. That has a very open joint which corrosion etc, does get into and over time will lock it up. I use lots of anti-seize on those when installing the BJ.

 

[ophidia]

Finally got around to doing this as the passenger side lower started creaking. It's a simple job but requires a lot of pounding and swearing. The only part I had any real trouble with was getting the top ball joint back in the knuckle. Seems I'd deformed the hole at the top a bit with the BFH and had to grind it a little with a dremel. I also succeeded in tearing the upper balljoint boot while I was banging it back together, so I know what I'll be replacing next. I put antiseize on the upper balljoint stud and the bolt so it should come apart easily.

 

[jeff spahn]

That's a great write up with good pictures. Only one thing you should change. Don't recommend to tighten the all the bolts really tight. If you can, edit the post with the torque values for the bolts and recommend people torque to the proper specs. Just my $.02

 

[jeff spahn]

Just did these on my truck. I do not think the lower balljoints were stock and as a result the balljoint press was not much help. Instead, I heated the metal on the outside of the balljoint and basically beat them out with a few firm blows from a ball peen hammer. They came out quite easily.

Before I started, I put the new balljoints in the freezer overnight. With the control arm already heated, the frozen balljoints went right in using the floor jack method.

I found the same thing. Heated the control arm and had the ball joints in the freezer. Went right in.

 

[jeff spahn]

The sledge is the best way to do it, but it does take some experience/practice.

The trick is a big sledge hammer, and a 4lbs baby sledge will work. It really can't be done without the big mass of the sledge, any light hammer shouldn't do it.

If you haven't done it before, you will think it's a light weight job, just tap it hard enough that you don't hurt it.

That will not work, you absolutely must hit it as hard as you can while making sure to not miss the spindle. You take all the time as needed to get in the right position, laying doing or being able to swing both arms fully. You get where you need to be, to be able to swing the sledge very hard onto the spindle(ball joint bulge).

You have to hit that bulge with enough force to compress that steel. It takes the real sledge and its mass and a hard hit to be able to deflect that metal.

Once you get used to being able top hit the spindle in that way, you will be able to pop the BJ out in less than 10 seconds, or a minute or two at the most. No other tools or methods will ever work that quickly. Grab the sledge and smack the #### out of it.

It was just like this with my 2000 EX. You really are just making the carrier temporarily deform in the slightest bit to release the joint. It is the same process for my Porsche 928 but you can't use a pickle fork on that car because you'll damage other parts in the process. Slight temporary deformation and the upper BJ pops right out.