Bad lower control arm ball joint?

[08grey]

Or lay on the hood and shoot it with a rifle at close range.

 

[07Burb]

Well, that's you 07, now isn't it?

yes, yes it is haha

 

[undertaker]

I was able to do mine on the suburban with the ball joint tool.

with a 3 ft snap on breaker bar and half the jack handle over that, I second the gun going off sound.

 

[TheAutumnWind]

You can rent the ball joint tool from a parts store but I use a method that works fine for me. Since you have the front end off the ground, hopefully with the jack stand under a crossmember, just put a jack stand under the lower control arm near the lower ball joint and adjust it up to almost parallel to the ground. Grab a big hammer and drive the ball joint out of the hole. Then clean the hole with a wire brush and lube with grease. do not put the grease zerk in the ball joint yet. Use the jack stand and a flat piece of hard wood to be under the ball joint after you have positioned the ball joint in the lower control arm hole. Use that same big hammer and whack the edge of the control arm driving it down and the ball joint up and in. I usually do it in 2-3 whacks. You gotta hold your tongue just right when you do this.

Ballsy. I like it.

 

[OR VietVet]

It's what I do!

 

[Wake]

I'd just get a whole new lower arm with new ball joint in it and just replace the whole shebang

I've done that in the past also. My experience with these trucks so far is that the lower control arms just need new ball joints, the bushings surprisingly look very good. The upper control arms I just replace as a rule since they are cheap and I haven't seen one yet that didn't have cracked/deteriorated bushings. The lower arm bushings are quite robust.

One other thing about replacing the arm is unless you go Delco replacement you don't really know what kind of quality you're getting. A GM or TRW pro grade ball joint can be had for about $40. A GM lower control arm will easily add another $100 to the cost when all you need is the ball joint.

Replacing the ball joint is a job, but I don't think it's any harder overall than replacing the whole arm since you have to disconnect a few things to get the arm off.