Well gang... I started down the long rocky trail of doing ball joints on my truck. Took me over 12 hours to do just the passenger side. As for getting every broke down for removal was a snap. Now the hub nut on the spindle is 1 11/16 nut and had to drive to town and get the right socket. ($14) as for getting the wheel bearings out snap to with a partner there to help out. The socket extension trick does work but not as documented. My buddy James used a longer extension and allow it to push off different areas of the axle tube.Other than that no problem. Take a 8# sledge hammer and nail the top of the knuckle near the upper ball joint and off it came. Now as for using the Harbor Freight ball joint press tool. Well it works but you got to be creative with it. We started with the lower ball joint and with even using a cheater pipe on the ratchet we couldn't get it to move. So after calling a few local tire shops most suggested heating and beating with a sledge.
DANGER!
At this point we broke out with the torch and heated the knuckle up good and hot. I took a good swing at the ball joint and BOOM! The ball joint exploded! Seriously! When it exploded it sound like a 30-06 going off! The actual ball stud came out in serious force chipping the concrete and hit by buddy James which was standing at the front of the truck and was struck in the thigh.
James is alright and not hurt. No bruise even... But very scary... Well as for the lower joint we weren't out of the woods yet. So now the guts are gone in the joint we fire up the torch and burn a hole through it. Then using a hacksaw cutting release points in the ball joint. Now taking a large chisel and collapsing the ball joint inward we gain some slack to get it to move. Now using the HF ball joint press we got the lower ball joint out. Now with the upper joint we too freaked out after the explosion we opted to us the HF tool again but go full torque pray the tool held up. Using a 4 foot square tube over the ratchet handle I pulled like rowing a boat. I had James standing in front of me for a base to push from. BOOM! The tool held up but ball joint exploded again popping out of the upper hole. I landed flat on my back from pulling so dang hard... At this point we grabbed a bit to eat here at the house. But went back to reassembly of the passenger side. I use a chainsaw file to de-burr the holes and makes sure the holes where clean. Using a generous amount of anti-seize on the holes and proceeded to use the ball joint press and drive the new joints into the axle. This point thing seem to go good and re-assembly was fine. My day ended at 11pm...
Well gang... I started down the long rocky trail of doing ball joints on my truck. Took me over 12 hours to do just the passenger side. As for getting every broke down for removal was a snap. Now the hub nut on the spindle is 1 11/16 nut and had to drive to town and get the right socket. ($14) as for getting the wheel bearings out snap to with a partner there to help out. The socket extension trick does work but not as documented. My buddy James used a longer extension and allow it to push off different areas of the axle tube.Other than that no problem. Take a 8# sledge hammer and nail the top of the knuckle near the upper ball joint and off it came. Now as for using the Harbor Freight ball joint press tool. Well it works but you got to be creative with it. We started with the lower ball joint and with even using a cheater pipe on the ratchet we couldn't get it to move. So after calling a few local tire shops most suggested heating and beating with a sledge.