does anybody have any resouces on ball joint for the front driver side of my 92 dodge truck and have any special ways to take them out ?

i have done the uppers and lowers on my 99 2wd...basically there is a snap ring that you take off the joint. then use a ball joint press(o'reily has a loner-tool,but deposit was ~100)it is a monster C-clamp that uses different size cups and drivers to press the joint out and in. the one i borrowed was missing cups...i made some out of pipe i had laying around. i didn't even remove the control arms. it was about a 3-4 hour job in the driveway piddling on a saturday.

Hmmm... I was affraid of that I would need a tool for pressing them out... I'm going to have to call around and see if I can get a loaner for ya Taz...

Here you go...............http://quad4x4.com/

hey thanks for the information Wild and Free and also guesswho512 hope we can find a loner right mopar1973man

i swear i have write up somewhere....you could use hydraulic press...we are talking 2wd? right

yes its 2wd

  Taz said:

yes its 2wd

that's all i have had the pleasure of working on, so far. at least it's not like my ford(and honda).....you'd have to buy a whole new upper control arm! its not that bad...i didn't even remove the control arms. i didn't want to remove the tie rod ends, b/c mine were blown and i didn't have the cash to change them also. so i did them one at a time and let the spindle/knuckle hang from the upper joint while doing the lower, and vice-versa.

Simple enough but just the fact of getting the tool I guess to press them in and out huh?

  Mopar1973Man said:

Simple enough but just the fact of getting the tool I guess to press them in and out huh?

yes, but you could get creative....i've done some crazy things with some concrete and a regular car jack

Hmmm... sound like a wild idea to try... Bottle jack some chain... The POP! its out eh?I'm not affraid of creating tools for a job either...

there you go! i sure you know, but for anyone trying this at home, make sure they press in and out evenly.

*note mopar1973man or guesswho512 are not responsible for damage/injuries resulting from improvised tool use.

yea thats right

This is how I have done the two wheel drives. Ok there are rivets that hold them in, take a tourch and just blow the heads off. Then center punch the rivets and drill pilot hole all the way through, then step up a couple size drill bits and drill through again. What you are doing is giveing the metal some where to go because it is real soft so it will punch right out. Let me back up a bit, dont drill all the way through the second time, you wont to stop just short of it. It gives a shoulder to use punch. It is going to work just the opizet of putting rivets in.

i have not seen the front end of a 1st gen...but my 2nd gen had no rivets. in fact, jlwelding, it sounds like you were their when we change my buddies 94 gmc 4x4's balljoints! it took a lot of "uhff" to get those suckers out!

Well it looks very easy to deal with compared to looking at the 4WD version. I'm just worried about 620K miles of dirt and rust holding it in...

My '93 has an 8 sided shape and threads on the upper, a single jack hammer and a cold chisel should knock it loose so you can crank it out with a pair of channellocks.Going back in you can bend a socket out of 1x1/8 th strap, weld the shape closed and a 1/2 in drive onto it. The old one is ugly and makes a good form to bend with.For press in type a short section of pipe for support of the control arm, and disconnect the tierod so the spindle can be tied back out of the way of swinging the hammer to drive the ball joint into the pipe. Going back in the ball joint is supported and the control arm driven onto the joint with a piece of pipe to protect the stud. A bottle jack is an easy way to set the parts aligned. A 2 # hammer makes it possible but a 6 # with a short handle works well.

Last week an aquaintance dropped his Mustang on the street with a broken lower ball joint. Some wood blocking to hold it up and a 2# hammer to knock the stud off the spindle, then drive the stud back into the socket and drive the joint out with a jack under the a-arm. Set the new ball joint on the jack and raised the a-arm an inch or so, then drove the a-arm down onto the ball joint. Set the spindle on the ball joint and tightened the nut and put the wheel back on so he could get out of traffic. Next day he did the other side in the driveway.They used press in and thread in ball joints for '93 with the 4k front axle according to the parts book. The parts weight about twice as much as a Mustang

Matter of fact that exactly how I installed the lower ball joints in Taz's truck... Great minds think alike...

funny...that is how i did the lower on my ranger 4yr ago....but usually when i tell people that story they call me Homer, for not pressing them in!