Ball Joints

[maxakabill]

So last weekend I decided I'd crank my torsion bars up about an inch and take in for an alignment. I took it into a local brakes plus because I have heard good things about them and they have a good deal on alignments. They told me that all of my ball joints are shot and they look like the ones from the factory, and my truck is at 151,000 miles. I have not looked to see if they are riveted in or not, but I'm presuming they are. I looked up the parts online and I found two options, I could either get press in ball joints or bolt in ball joints. I am pretty sure I will have to do a bolt in ball joint for the upper control arms, but can i do a bolt in ball joint for the lower control arm? Would this make things any easier or should I stick with the press in ball joint?

 

[Swims350]

You HAVE to use what the bottom control arm uses, top is bolt in ONLY. If it's factory it's riveted in or should be, replacements bolt in. Bottoms can press in or bolt in, if you have a press in bottom you must use a press in bottom. if it's riveted or bolted in you have to use the bolt in bottom.

If you are buying them yourself shop around, rock auto.com has great deals on them very cheap, better then local parts stores prices. summit has good deals and some others like amazon.com so look around.

If you are going to put them on yourself, and they are rivted in top or bottom or both, grind the rivet head off, then use a punch to knock them out, or drill them out then chisel off the head, or cut an x in the head then chisel them off, just several options to remove them.

Press out ones you can rent the balljoint press from autzone or advance, makes fast works of it. it'll cost about a $100 or so to rent but you get it back when you return it.

There are other things to know and watch for doing it yourself though, like keeping a jack under the control arm(lower), leave the nuts on them a couple turns before knocking them loose from the spindle/knuckle, and you need a pickle fork in most cases to knock them loose from the knuckle.

I assume it's for a 4x4, if it were 2wd you musty or should chain the spring to help be safe.

 

[maxakabill]

Perfect, that answered my question exactly. Thanks a lot.

 

[RHamill]

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Swims350 again." is the message I get, sorry man, that is a great answer! Very helpful.

I knew when I cranked my bars up and got it aligned, that all of the BJ's were factory, but I got lucky, the guy said they are all good, but the upper Drivers side is a little wiggly.