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Factory Ball Joint Replacement 1996 1500 4x4

1K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  Jspera 
#1 ·
Does anyone have any good advice on removing the upper ball joints on a second gen 4x4?
The C clamp press is too big to fit in, the pickle fork from auto zone helped to bump the joint up but it isnt big enough to fit around it.
I been beating the crap outa this thing, and am ready to go after it with a cutting wheel and a chisel and a hammer...not to say ive already been
I havent cut the head off of it yet but it looks like that these ball joints have to pop out from the top so i have been swinging a hammer on a socket from the bottom of the ball joint to push it up...heck i even tried using a scissor jack with a socket to push it out but it wasnt working i think i would have damaged the knuckle if i kept trying it out
i got the ball joint part out now to get the rest of it out, im pretty sure these are factory they are metal SOBs
 
#3 ·
yeah i just wasnt thinking, i got the giant C clamp tool and we ended up cutting off the actual ball joint so we would have room for easier removal of the cup and i didnt have my truck high enough off the ground to allow room for the C clamps rod, so in the end the tool worked but the cups that i got from orielieys didnt always work so we would end up using plate and other pieces of pipe we had...as for the installation once again some of the pieces orielys gave us didnt fit the ball joint so we had to machine out some pipe to make it fit. in the long run we got them in.
BUT hit me in the balls the upper ball joints are offset and idk by how many degrees so i gota take it in for an alignment by a local front end shop. i just installed straight balls on the top and i know my tires are gonna wear like no other...so its always fun. but yeah now to take it for the alignment and getting the right ball joints installed
 
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