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...

That's what I'm saying!

Nevermind... Not enough coffee...

i went about 220k on mine. the truck was interesting to drive to say the least.

Well today I finally finished this project. Month later... But I got James back down here and we figured out a whole new game plan and managed to get them pressed out without even using heat. Still used the Harbor Freight Ball Joint Press but when you get some pressure laid to it take your shop sledge hammer and smack the knuckle with a good hit. I didn't hit the tool or the joint just the side of the knuckle ears and BAM! It would jump. Start wrenching down and it continues to press out like it should. I've taken a short test drive and it seems a bit tighter for steering but good. So more to come later...

i think if i had been James i might of insisted on a slightly differant than the first time.

i think if i had been James i might of insisted on a slightly differant than the first time.

Trust me... I was asking if he wanted the torch to hea them up again... He was ready to whip my arse...

I rented a puller from Advance Auto parts. I didn't need any heat either!

In efforts (last night) to try and determine why my truck is eating up a right-front tire, I noticed the left front UBJ is completely trashed. Jack up the axle, and the top of the tire falls out about 2 inches! Ironically, this is NOT the tire that's getting eaten up..so now, I still need to figure out WTF is going on with the tire wear on the right, in addition to replacing all 4 ball joints.. This, after my ECM took a dive 2 weeks ago, and also noticed my steering box is getting sloppy at the output shaft..Yay. FML.

when mine went it started wearing both front tires like i had them under inflated even though i was running them with 80psi. fixed all that and the ecm went:spend:. fixed that then a new nv5600 was needed:spend:. i need about a year trouble free to recouparate from all that. i dont want to know about my steering box yet.