just finished ball joints
12-04-2005, 10:24 PM
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just finished ball joints
I hit some trouble spots along the way.
Axle nut was frozen on. I tried heat and lots of force. I finally had to grind through it with a cutoff wheel on the grinder. I nicked a couple of threads, but nothing serious. I ground it very thin, and finally cracked it with a chisel.
The usual hub-bearing assembly trouble was a pain, but I was expecting it and knew the power steering press trick.
The absolute worst part was trying to use a harbor freight ball joint press. Using this chintsy press was like standing at the gates of hell and throwing snowballs in to try to lower the temperature.
It was an 8" garden variety press, which is too small to start with. It halfway worked with some rigging and spare pipe on the top ball joint. Then, it took the better part of a day to figure out how to get the bottom ball joint out.
The bottom leg of the axle yoke is slanted on the underside, which means you can't just sit one of the generic pipe adapters against it to press the joint out. No, you have to find, buy, or make something to fit in the three nanometer-wide space between the balljoint shoulder and the recessed area in the lower leg of the yoke.
I ended up getting some exhaust pipe that just did fit around the ball joint shoulder. I bent several single-exhaust tubing adapters trying to press it out. Then I hammered one piece of tubing into the flared end section of tubing that I cut off. That was finally strong enough to allow the press to do its thing.
If you do ball joints on a 2001 4x4, do yourself a favor and get the press that quad 4x4 advertises on his site, or get it from the dealer. I would have paid $1000 for the right tool at about 2pm today. That feeling of panic set in where your truck is too broken to drive to the mechanic, but you have no idea how to fix it.
I used 1/2 a bottle of anti-seize during reassembly.
Axle nut was frozen on. I tried heat and lots of force. I finally had to grind through it with a cutoff wheel on the grinder. I nicked a couple of threads, but nothing serious. I ground it very thin, and finally cracked it with a chisel.
The usual hub-bearing assembly trouble was a pain, but I was expecting it and knew the power steering press trick.
The absolute worst part was trying to use a harbor freight ball joint press. Using this chintsy press was like standing at the gates of hell and throwing snowballs in to try to lower the temperature.
It was an 8" garden variety press, which is too small to start with. It halfway worked with some rigging and spare pipe on the top ball joint. Then, it took the better part of a day to figure out how to get the bottom ball joint out.
The bottom leg of the axle yoke is slanted on the underside, which means you can't just sit one of the generic pipe adapters against it to press the joint out. No, you have to find, buy, or make something to fit in the three nanometer-wide space between the balljoint shoulder and the recessed area in the lower leg of the yoke.
I ended up getting some exhaust pipe that just did fit around the ball joint shoulder. I bent several single-exhaust tubing adapters trying to press it out. Then I hammered one piece of tubing into the flared end section of tubing that I cut off. That was finally strong enough to allow the press to do its thing.
If you do ball joints on a 2001 4x4, do yourself a favor and get the press that quad 4x4 advertises on his site, or get it from the dealer. I would have paid $1000 for the right tool at about 2pm today. That feeling of panic set in where your truck is too broken to drive to the mechanic, but you have no idea how to fix it.
I used 1/2 a bottle of anti-seize during reassembly.
12-05-2005, 11:51 AM
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I had a similar issue when I did mine. After bending my new $100.00 ball joint press, I ended up taking the knuckle to a machine shop. $16.00 each to remove and install a new ball joint. I now make sure to suggest not buying (and bending) a ball joint press - just take it to someone with the right press.
12-05-2005, 02:26 PM
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I would have had to unbolt the entire front axle and carry it in. 
The ball joints in a 2001 are in the axle yoke at the end of the tube. I'll get the correct press from Dodge, or an outside vendor before I do this again.
The ball joints in a 2001 are in the axle yoke at the end of the tube. I'll get the correct press from Dodge, or an outside vendor before I do this again.
12-06-2005, 07:39 PM
#6
I replaced a front axle ujoint on a 95 4x4 with 220K miles on it last week. All the sockets fit the nuts properly, and I "wiggled" the hub/rotor assy out by hand.....you have no idea how thankful I am to be a tech in rust free arizona.....and "yes" it's very nice using the correct Miller tools for the ball joint jobs.
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