Stamped balljoint seating question

LeFrostiPine said:

Heya! My lower balljoint is shot, so I went to replace it with some Autozone ****. However, after 3 attempts to install, the bottom balljoint's lip looks bent, even though it's fully seated. The original one was fully flushed. I've attempted to even it out, but I've bent two out of three autozone balljoint presses in the process. Does this look safe? I do not wanna tear apart the lower control arm and have it sent to a place that can press it in because of the torsion bar. Thanks in advance!

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454cid said:

Hard telling from the picture, but if you're destroying ball joint presses, something is wrong. If it were mine, I'd pull the ball joint out, and start over, probably with a fresh ball joint. I agree it looks like that lip is bent, which means it's not seated straight in the bore.

I've never replaced a ball joint in a stamped arm, as my truck has the forged arms, but usually removal is the more difficult part, for me.

I always clean and lube the threads on the ball joint press, and clean the bore up in the control arm. This makes for a much easier time.

Any chance you've got a ball joint for the forged arms? They're a bit larger. I have no idea if it's possible to get one started in the smaller hole.

Safe? I don't really know. The weight of the truck will be on it, but maybe it would eventually wiggle free?

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