How to replace Ball Joints?

[Magnus]

Well I believe my Ball Joints are bad, possibly due to no front sway bar for an extended length of time.

Where can I buy them?
Where are they on the car??
How do I go about changing them?

This will be my learning experience for suspension. I have no idea how my front suspension works in the least bit. I hope I won't need fancy tools.

[TealV6]

Ball joints are no fun Keith.....

You can get replacements at the parts store, but you need to know if you want upper or lower.

These are what hold the spindle in place. So you have one on the upper Control arm and one on the lower. Most of the time, the factory "presses" these suckers in. Making them a bear to get out. The new ones will just have to bolt in.

Special tools.... air tools would always be nice ;) But for the most part, a BIG hammer will do it :D

Steve

[RedbirdV6]

Be ready to spend a day on this. Don't know if they are as hard as my truck was, but man it was a PITA.

[Magnus]

:(

[Magnus]

I'll probably replace both at the same time, upper and lower.

Whats a spindle?

Whats the harm if I dont' change them any time soon? ITs VERY cold outside and I'm not too fond of working on the car in freazing temps.

THanks guys for the info. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[eldavid]

The spindle is the shaft that serves as the axis around which the tires, wheels, brake rotors and wheel bearings rotate. This page shows the best picture of spindles I could find. In this case, the spindle is more an assembly than just a shaft.

-emerson

[viper98885]

I recently changed my upper ball joints on both the driver's side and passenger side control arms. Installation was very simple and I spend about 20 minutes per side. The lowers are much more complicated and do require a press. BTW, spindle is also referred to as a steering knuckle.

[Magnus]

Hmm.. I might just do the upper ones and see if that fixes the problem then.

Can anyone give me a run down on how to do it? Or a link to a page with a how-to?

This will be my first time doing anything really in-depth to the suspension.

[black98V6]

the upper ball joints are held in place with 4 rivets. to remove them you have to drill out the rivet heads then knock out the upper joint. the new ones will come with bolts to go into the holes made when removing the rivets. replacing the ball joints is nothing, the fun part is getting off the spindle. to drill out the rivets start with an 1/8th inch drill bit and drill a 1/4 inch deep hole then switch over to a half inch bit to drill out the rest of the rivet head. after drilling out the 4 rivets you can knock out the whole balljoint out with a hammer.
keith, if you want me to go into real detail shoot me an e-mail and I'll scan in some stuff for ya oah if you are going to do the upper balljoints I suggest doing the lower ones at the same time, (just because you are going to have everything apart anyway) easiest way to do those take the lower A-arm off yourself and take both lower control arms to a machine shop and let them press out the old ones and press in the new ones....I use the term press loosely, watched a guy do the lower ones on my blazer with a big hammer, big socket and someone to hold the a arm steady.. :eek: anyway it worked.. I completely rebuilt the front end on my blazer and there are quite a few similarities (and differences) but I got a pretty good idea on how all that stuff works.. there are other things that you can do while you have all that apart to help your handling also...

[viper98885]

There is really a very easy way to get the upper control arm out without going through too much trouble. Take out the four bolts on the top of the shock tower, and the two at the bottom of the shock. Remove the cotter pin frmo the upper ball joint. Loosen the nut on the sway bar end link all the way to the end of the threads so that the lower control arm can move to full potential. At this point, if you apply downward force to the spindle, and give the upper ball joint a nice hit with a hammer on the stud, the upper ball joint will break lose from the spindle. With the top four shock bolts out, and now with the ability to lower the shock/spring assembly enough to pull the upper control arm out, removal is a snap. From there, drill out the 3 rivet heads and the upper ball joint will fall right out. The new kit will come with the new bolts and torque nuts and the ball joint along with detailed instructions for removing the ball joint. From there, installation is reversal of removal.

A little side note, I purchased my new ball joint service kit from the dealer (because I couldn't find anyone who made an aftermarket one), and there are two different ones that the dealer offers. One is made by GM and one by AC-Delco. The GM one is about $10-$15 more, but it is the one that was on the car when it was manufactured and is a little better quality than the AC-Delco one. Just a little tip for better quality parts.

[DominusEtDeusNatus]

You're probably going to be taking the springs/shocks off so you'll need a compressor. I can help you on a weekend. 22nd and 23rd look like a possibility depending on how the car is. You need to see it anyway to "heal the wounds." We can kill two birds on one weekend. Hopefully its not below freezing like it is now.

[viper98885]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Dom:
You're probably going to be taking the springs/shocks off so you'll need a compressor.<hr></blockquote>

You don't need to remove the springs to remove the ball joints.

[Seppo Kaitainen]

I fugged up one when I changed springs and shocks on my TA. So I took the lower control arm off, and it did not take an extreme amount of work to replace it.

I just used a block of wood to knock the damaged one out. Then took it to Home Depot looking for a peice of medal pipe to use to put the new one end. I ended up with a couple peices of PVC.

[Magnus]

Ok, looking at this pic:
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/A-arms/display.jpg

Upper red piece is upper A-Arm.
Lower red piece is lower A-Arm.
Spring and shock are obvious.
Grey bar way on top is STB.
Grey bar way on bottom is sway bar (Mine is gone).

Where are the ball joints?
Whats that black thiny on the left?
Is that black thingy on the right the K-Member?
Are the A-Arms also refered to as control arms?

I'm guessing those bars going down are stands.

[ January 23, 2002: Message edited by: Magnus ]</p>

[DominusEtDeusNatus]

And where are tie rods? And will he need to remove them? If so he'll need a pickle fork I'm assuming.

[ January 23, 2002: Message edited by: Dom ]</p>