How to replace lower ball joint?????

[LittleBeast]

Well I am almost completely done with the gear swap/diff drop project but as I went to replace the front lower ball joints (because they are torn) I realized it is not as straight forward as the uppers at all! I have the 4 mounting bolts off and I removed the cotter pins and broke the castle nuts loose and removed then I used my 5 ton axle puller and a 5lb hammer to break the ball joints loose and now that is as far as I can get! The outer cv joint is too close for the ball joint to pull out no matter what angle how much force or what size hammer I use. Do I seriously have to remove the entire outer CV joint? I can tear apart and put back together the inner CV joint blindfolded in minutes but I have no idea where to start on the outer assembly. HELP?!

[LittleBeast]

no one replaced the lower ones themselves? no help? ideas? The ball joint will not fit between the hole it goes in and the outer CV attachment, it just gets lodged in between the two and will not come out. I could cut the end of the ball joint off (where the cotter pin fits through) and it would probably have enough room to come out, but then I could not fit the new one back in the hole without doing the same.

I bought 2 replacement lower ball joints for $7.35 each from amazon.com, they only had 2 at this price and I jumped on them, now they are back to the normal $45-$60 range each. So I really don't want to blow my savings here on taking it to a shop to get the lower ball joints replaced, thanks for any help.

[Ldub]

You're right Ryan...I don't see any other way.

Your post got the old dooder curious, so I went out in my "Big Lebowski" bathrobe & took a peek...bummer man....

On the + side, I think a bright guy like you, who isn't afraid to get "up to the elbows dirty", could figure it out with a little help from the shop manual......

[LittleBeast]

Yeah that is what I am looking at now, LOL, you do have to remove everything to the left of the outer CV joint in order to replace the lower ball joint (according to the manual), haha, wow, this is going to be really fun

I guess I should just follow the repacking the front bearings protocol and then remove the outer CV joint and then replace the lower ball joint, blah!!!!!

[Dumke]

Hey Ryan I replaced mine but had assitance.. Forgive me for my teminolgy is lacking but my Old roomeys husband who is a mechanic did it and it only took maybe 15-20 minutes maybe less if I wasnt helping lol.. I will have to crawl under there today after work and check see if I can remember.. I should have taken pictures but was replacing a bunch of stuff with HD stuff and well got oer my head on the weekend so I got assitance to finish in time for work monday lol..

[LittleBeast]

Hey Ryan I replaced mine but had assitance.. Forgive me for my teminolgy is lacking but my Old roomeys husband who is a mechanic did it and it only took maybe 15-20 minutes maybe less if I wasnt helping lol.. I will have to crawl under there today after work and check see if I can remember.. I should have taken pictures but was replacing a bunch of stuff with HD stuff and well got oer my head on the weekend so I got assitance to finish in time for work monday lol..

Any other ball joint, including the upper ones, steering linkage and all the others are very easy to remove (once you get them broken loose), but the lower one is wedged in there by the outer CV attachment and there really seems to be no way around having to take apart and remove the outer CV by releasing it from disassembling the entire HUB. I would love to know how he did this as the closest I can get is 1/2 the way off until it starts wedging itself at an angle under the CV cup. But if it is true then I have hope, maybe you can talk to your mechanic friend and then enlighten me, thanks.

[Ldub]

Hey Ryan I replaced mine but had assitance.. Forgive me for my teminolgy is lacking but my Old roomeys husband who is a mechanic did it and it only took maybe 15-20 minutes maybe less if I wasnt helping lol.. I will have to crawl under there today after work and check see if I can remember.. I should have taken pictures but was replacing a bunch of stuff with HD stuff and well got oer my head on the weekend so I got assitance to finish in time for work monday lol..

Any other ball joint, including the upper ones, steering linkage and all the others are very easy to remove (once you get them broken loose), but the lower one is wedged in there by the outer CV attachment and there really seems to be no way around having to take apart and remove the outer CV by releasing it from disassembling the entire HUB. I would love to know how he did this as the closest I can get is 1/2 the way off until it starts wedging itself at an angle under the CV cup. But if it is true then I have hope, maybe you can talk to your mechanic friend and then enlighten me, thanks.

My guess is that Rob is referring to the upper ball joint flip...
I could see that taking twenty min/side if it was already off the ground with the tires/wheels off...

But I don't see any way you could get the lowers done in that amount of time...

[Dumke]

Dub I actually changed both of my to HD or whatever.. was part of kit i bought. I flipped upper and changed lower.


Ryan he didnt call me back yet but when I looked under there after work that how I think he did it... Tires off of course. pull rotor and blah blah other stuff.. when I get details which hopefully by tomorrow he will let me know or call back. i will be calling him tomorrow.

[E-ZooZoo One]

I vaguely recall running into a clearance issue when changing my lower Ball Joints…
IIRC, with the upper Ball Joint already disconnected, we had to disassemble the outer hub assembly, down to the retainer C-clip – slide the CV shaft out the back (with just BARELY enough room to do so) – and then, with the CV shaft held up out of the way, there was enough clearance to lift the spindle off of the lower Ball Joint.

HTH


Cheers!
Smiley

[LittleBeast]

I vaguely recall running into a clearance issue when changing my lower Ball Joints…
IIRC, with the upper Ball Joint already disconnected, we had to disassemble the outer hub assembly, down to the retainer C-clip – slide the CV shaft out the back (with just BARELY enough room to do so) – and then, with the CV shaft held up out of the way, there was enough clearance to lift the spindle off of the lower Ball Joint.

That is exactly what I was thinking, but I really wanted to avoid that if at all possible. Thanks.

[E-ZooZoo One]

On the bright side, you can re-pack your bearings while you're at it


Cheers!
Smiley

[LittleBeast]

On the bright side, you can re-pack your bearings while you're at it


Cheers!
Smiley

Do I have to disassemble EVERYTHING to get the cv cup loose that you would have to disassemble to re-pack? If so I guess I might as well. Oh well more money and more time.

[E-ZooZoo One]

IIRC, no, you don't have to tear it down quite that far... but the way I see it, if you're already that close, why not go ahead and re-pack the bearings while you're at it? --- Other than being a little messy, it's not that hard -- hell , *I* can do it!


Cheers!
Smiley

[etlsport]

Ryan did you get this finished? I just noticed that I've got a torn boot over my lower ball joint. any advice would be much appreciated!

[RamAirZ]

I'll be doing my uppers/lowers and CV boots as soon as my parts come in, I'll take pics for yall. I was just planning on removing the brake caliper and storing it out of the way, popping the hub off and taking the c-clip out, popping all the joints loose and just removing the spindle all together. It sounds like a pain but did it in my Rodeo and was 10 times faster. I did one side by trying to find a way to AVOID doing it that way and afterwards decided to just pull it all off, made things SOOOOOO much easier. Figure it'll make doing the boots alot easier too.