lower ball joints

[blue99tahoe24]

Im in the process of be building my front end and i was reading to change lower ball joints i have to loosen the torsion bar shocks and remove control arm is there an easier way and how do i tell if i have stamped or forged lower control arms thanks

 

[superjet119]

I didn't remove the torsion bars. Even with the proper tools it was a pain in the ass! Mine were forged but took the smaller ball joints!

 

[blue99tahoe24]

U just pressed them out and pressed new in

 

[electro]

Lets see if I can help at all. I have never replaced my ball joints but I have read how to do it a few times lol. Anyway, I guess the reason you would remove your torsion bars is because you are going to remove your lower control arm so you can move it to a press and have the old joints pressed out and the new ones pressed in. Its really not too difficult to remove your torsion bars, you will however need to acquire a two jaw puller to remove them. If you decide to leave the control arms on the vehicle than you will have to mustar up some force and a pickle fork and a big f'in hammer to pry/bang and seperate the ball joint from the control arm after removin the nut. Apparently this can be a real effort. As I said I havent done it before so I couldnt say exactly how difficult it is. But you CAN do it!

Sure will be nice to do up the front end. Maybe it will be better to remove the torsion bars and than the control arms this way you can replace the control arm bushings with new ones for an improved ride.

 

[blue99tahoe24]

Thanks for all the help man gonna go look now

 

[taylorjm]

Sounds like a lot of work to pull the control arms out, but I guess that's what a lot of people do. I did it a different way and I would do it the same way again. I tore apart the grease boot, wiped away as much grease as a could. Then took a 6" angle grinder with a cutting wheel and cut the ball joint shaft off between the control arm and the steering knuckle. Once they were separated, I could get the rental ball joint press in there and it pressed right out. Without cutting it off, I couldn't get the press in there. Just my two cents.

 

[jdpber]

you do not have to pull the control arms out.. I am about to do all of this this weekend..

you can rent a ball joint press from Advanced auto.. and once the spindel is free you use the adapters and press out the ball joints attatched to the vehicle.. adn then press new ones in..

now i plan to do bushings so i will be pullin the arms. to install all new bushings..

but as for the ball joints you can remove and install the new ones on the vehicle with said rented tool.. you do not need a huge free standing 10-20 ton press.. that is not needed..

yes this will take some time. but nothing 2-3 beers cant handle..

 

[taylorjm]

Ok, here is what I mean. With my 03, when you take the nut off the bottom, the spindle doesn't just fall down. The ball joint shaft is tapered. I tried 3 different kinds of pickle forks, but none of them were thick enough, or wide enough to separate the spindle from the shaft. It also didn't work to try the ball joint press around the entire spindle and control arm. So, I removed the rubber, wiped all the grease away so there was just a shaft between the control arm and spindle, and cut that shaft so the spindle would fall away from the control arm. Once that happened, I used the ball joint press on the control arm, then again on the spindle to get the little piece of shaft off. It was very easy after that. I used a grinder, I'm not sure a sawzall would work or not, I'm sure it'd hardened steel. It took less than 10 seconds to cut it with the grinder. Getting it pressed back on wasn't a problem.

 

[imi4tth3w]

you guys are nuts. 100x easier to just unload the torsion bars, unbolt the lower control arm and take it to a press. a shop will press the old ones out and new ones in for no more than 20-30$. just make sure you mark the alignment pins and the torsion bar screw lengths to keep your alignment in check. a fresh alignment is never a bad idea either.

 

[taylorjm]

Taking the control arm off isn't going to help when the shaft is pressed into the spindle too. How are you going to separate the spindle and control arm where the grease boot is?