So Friday night, we attempted to replace my ball joints. All week, I've been soaking the hub assembly and associated hardware with rust penetrate.Bottom line:Broke $1400 in Snap-On and Matco tools, and NEVER got the axle nut off, nor did we get the hub out. Afterward, we tried using the hub press tool thingy from Snap-On, where you use the hub bolts (backed out some) and use the power steering to press the hub out.. Yeah... DESTROYED the right-inner TRE; turned it into a horseshoe.. it's as if the spindle and hub are now one-piece, thanks to rust...So, I had to replace that. Never did get the hub out. I suppose next weekend, I'll just cut the ball joints , slide the spindle/hub/axle out as one unit, and annihilate the $400 hub bearing on a 20T press.

I got crazy and bought the cheapest joints off of RockAuto.Com... (No joke!)

this thread had me laughing the whole time. i feel your pain though, we did the ball joints and steering box on my buddys o2 and holys*it balls was it rough. i broke down last july and took mine to schwabbys to get fixed. i needed new rubber anyways but 3800$ later had fresh tires and a brand new front end:ahhh: i did purchase my stabilizer and put it on in about half an hour. that thing drives like a dream now. speaking of that. any of you guys run the lukes link? i was running that before the rebuild and it seemed to do pretty good with moderate adjustments every once in awhile.

I used Moog in mine. I guess only time will tell if it was a smart choice or any better than the cheapies that Mike bought. They are still holding up well after 20k.

I also went with MOOGs from Rockauto.com, as well as hub bearings. I coated the hell out of the mating surfaces with Bostik pure nickel anti-sieze.