Replacing ball joints & tie rods.

[bullinerfamily]

I have all my parts, 4 new ball joints, both inner and outer tie rods for both sides of the truck. oh yeah, it is a 92 xlt, 4dr 2wd. My main questions at this point is about greasing the tie rods. i bought a grease gun, and am wondering if i should grease the fittings before or after installing the parts? will it be a harder job if i grease first? I hope everyone will be able to help me as this is the first time changing out these parts. i have done everything on my x, so i have plenty of confidense. and if i have any problems along the way i will be sure to ask for help, so if you have experience with ball joints and tie rods please keep an eye on this post. will update daily

 

[Spdrcer34]

Grease them after they are installed.

It will make the whole process a bit cleaner.

Ryan

 

[DeRocha]

Definitely After. You cannot grease them before unless you install the zerk fittings. Even if you did it would be a mess, and be a potential PITA if you busted a zerk off when trying to install a ball joint..

 

[bullinerfamily]

thank you both for a quick response, will post soon, probably going to start tomorrow since it is pretty wet and muddy today

 

[bullinerfamily]

on more quick question

3 of the 4 tie rods, the rubber boot is attached pretty much sealed, and one of them, the boot has dropped down off the fringe. i try to push it back up over the lip, but it just slowly falls right back off. will it stay up once i have it installed? or do i have a bad tie rod?

 

[TedJ]

The boot on some tie rods just sits on the end of the tie rod end... it gets trapped between what the stud is attached (knuckle, pitman arm, etc) to and the joint. Most of the tie rod ends I have installed don't even come with the boot on, they just are loose in the box. Should be fine....

 

[hollywood.mike]

Help!!

 

[hollywood.mike]

im trying to pound out the spindal/knuckle?????? it wont budge!! WTF???? LMAO

 

[nooberiffic]

keep hitting it. It wont budge and then suddenly will drop free. Make sure nothing is below that can get hurt.

 

[hollywood.mike]

Where do I hit the damn thing? on the bottom ball joint bolt or just anywhere on the top????

 

[nooberiffic]

Either. I hit the top of the old ball joint, but when it broke free Ihad to grind of a bit because it mushroomed out a bit.

 

[hollywood.mike]

Well I don't have the threaded top bolt so no biggie there but really WTF???????
I've been hitting it off n on for 2days now and I know its probably never been pulled off since 92 but really there has to be a better way.

 

[nooberiffic]

Get a bigger hammer.

 

[TedJ]

Get a 3lb sledge, push the front (tie rod side) of the knuckle all the way in to open up the space in the back, and beat the heck out of the ball joint stud at the bottom. Beating the top one or anywhere else on the knuckle just breaks and mushrooms stuff. Make sure there is weight on the suspension so that the radius arm is not just flapping around.

 

[nitro71]

I put the nut that holds the ball joint on the top of the stud to protect the ball joint. I then push the knuckly forward and proceed to beat the heck out of the nut and stud with the biggest BFG I've got. Some heat on the knuckle might help if you have a torch. To hot and it probably isn't good for the ball joint or the grease(flammable) in it. For a $1.50 Napa has a grade 8 nut they'll sell you to replace the beaten one.

 

[hollywood.mike]

ok so here's an update....... i talked to a friend that is a mechanic and he said that i needed to put the stand directly under the lower ball joint bolt so that the I-beam didnt flex AT ALL and leave the nut on it to protect it from mushrooming. when that didnt work he came over and we cut the lower ball joint stud off so that the knuckle would coome out then we hit the stud again an finally it came out.
there was so much rust on it that its obvious noone has done this service since it was new in 1992!!!
anyway just wanted to say thanks for the help to everyone! on to the next project...... dropping the fuel tank and changing the fuel pump! =)