Upper & Lower balljoints

[Mr.Jack]

Yo from Norway here!

Just a quick question:
Are upper and lower balljoints easy to change on my truck? Like do it yourself easy?
My truck is a 2003 Tahoe LT 5,3

 

[el_flores]

I need to change my uppers, so I'd like to know too.

 

[taylorjm]

Just changed mine. It's not hard, but it's time consuming. Plus, when you do ball joints, you have to remove the brakes and hub bearings, so you have to decide if you want to replace those too. Or be prepared to replace the bearings depending how hard you have to hit them with a sledge to get them off. Then you have to either buy or rent the ball joint press from a local auto parts store, and a 36mm socket for the hub nut. The ball joints are a pain to get off the steering knuckle and I ended up cutting the shaft off between the ball joint and steering knuckle with a 6" grinding cutting wheel.

 

[2005SnowKon]

Yea they arent bad. Basically you take you caliper, pads and rotor off. The. Remove outer tie rod from the knuckle. Remove the axle nut, then the upper ball joint nut. Once that is done remove the lower ball joint but almost all the way and hit the knuckle with a hammer to free it up. Should loosen then knuckle should come off. Press old ball joints out put new ones in. Be careful when installing the upper, they DO NEED TO GO IN A CERTAIN WAY. There is an arrow that need to point towards the engine. after that installation is reversal of removal. When done get an alignment. Hopefully this helps. Btw I'm a mechanic in Colorado, done a few of these in my time


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[Mr.Jack]

Yea they arent bad. Basically you take you caliper, pads and rotor off. The. Remove outer tie rod from the knuckle. Remove the axle nut, then the upper ball joint nut. Once that is done remove the lower ball joint but almost all the way and hit the knuckle with a hammer to free it up. Should loosen then knuckle should come off. Press old ball joints out put new ones in. Be careful when installing the upper, they DO NEED TO GO IN A CERTAIN WAY. There is an arrow that need to point towards the engine. after that installation is reversal of removal. When done get an alignment. Hopefully this helps. Btw I'm a mechanic in Colorado, done a few of these in my time


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Thank you, Sir.
I have to think about doing this myself. Garages are pretty expensive here. 150 US$ per hour do they charge.
What about you coming over to Norway and do this for me?

---------- Post added at 02:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:09 AM ----------

Btw, the right upper and lower ball joints came out as parts needed to be changed at my annual vehicle inspection.
But should I change more parts at the same time?
Thought about buying a set like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Suspension-...pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr
Is this manufacturer making good enough parts?

 

[obamamonkey]

Welcome Norwegian guy! My wife's ancestors came from Norway, Bergen, but that was a long time ago, think they rode their viking ships across the sea!

 

[taylorjm]

Yea they arent bad. Basically you take you caliper, pads and rotor off. The. Remove outer tie rod from the knuckle. Remove the axle nut, then the upper ball joint nut. Once that is done remove the lower ball joint but almost all the way and hit the knuckle with a hammer to free it up. Should loosen then knuckle should come off. Press old ball joints out put new ones in. Be careful when installing the upper, they DO NEED TO GO IN A CERTAIN WAY. There is an arrow that need to point towards the engine. after that installation is reversal of removal. When done get an alignment. Hopefully this helps. Btw I'm a mechanic in Colorado, done a few of these in my time


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Do you remove the hub/bearing as well?

 

[2005SnowKon]

You dot have to. I usually remove not and the steering knuckle as one. But you can remove it of you need too


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[el_flores]

Thanks guys, when I took my Tahoe to get aligned after I leveled it out, they said I needed to replace my uppers. That's all I'm getting and replacing, I just hope they don't come out with something else after I get it all done, put together, and back to get aligned.

 

[bikerglasses]

We should get a post with the suggested replacement parts ..part #s, links etc.

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