Replacing ball-joints

[fitron74]

FSJ Gurus,
I plan on checking/replacing the ball-joints on my '87 GW come vacation time this spring. Anyone done this before? What tools are needed? How hard to remove the old parts? Nothing in the tech library on this or in my Haynes Manual. Any help/advice is appreciated before I tackle this in the spring. Thanx.
Fitron74

[mdill]

Depending on what you already have, the special tools needed are:
1) Wheel bearing socket
2) Ball joint sleeve socket
3) Ball joint press (Can be farmed out, or I see them go for ~$100 on ebay, or have seen them done with pipes vice and the big hammer)
4) Nice to have is a spindle puller adapter for slide hammer (nice but can be done other ways)
Then the regular torque wrenches, snap ring pliers, hammer, regular sockets ...
5) Pickle fork or better puller to remove tie rod ends and get the ball joints loose

Parts you are going to need are
1) wheel bearing seals (you are going to repack them while your in there are you not ?)
2) inner spindle seals ( see above)
3) ball joints.
4) Brake pads (hey for the few bucks why not do it while you are there)

Then you need the good part of a day to get them done.

Mike D.

[blt2krl]

Very important to torque those ball joint to spec when you put the news in. Wrong torque can cause a squirrelly driving feel.

[reddog]

What is a spindle puller??? How many miles does a D44 go before the ball joints/CV joints in the front start to get sloppy. My 87 is coming up on 200K miles so I suspect that I am getting close to the same operation.

How about the u-joints/CV while your there?? wouldn't that make sense???

Kerry

[mdill]

Would not be a bad thing to replace the joints while in there, 200K is alot
of miles on them, if you see any red-dust around around any of the seals
you know they are toast, check for play and free movment while you have
them out.

Mike D.

[crispyboy]

Do the ball joints effect the castor/camber of the front wheels? Do you have to do anything special when replacing?

[mdill]

On a solid axle front end pretty much caster/camber are set at manufacture and
sould not change unless it gets bent. If bent there are a number of ways to patch,
bandage or streighten but for the most part if it was fine before then it will be fine
after, if it was messed up before it will be messed up after.
If it has a bent axle and has either shims under the spindles or a after market off set
ball joint then they should be replaced in exact same way they came out.

Mike D.

[2ndtimearround]

Originally posted by reddog:
What is a spindle puller???This is a spindle puller:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/larryx007/spindle_new_size.JPG

One end is sized to thread on to D30, D44 and D60 spindles, the other attaches to a slide hammer (5/8 - 20 thread if I remember).

A few wacks on the slide hammer and it is off.

Lawrence

[LRRH]

rent a spindle puller. i did mine on the 86 last winter and spent a LONG time getting them off the old fashioned way. them fancy tools is the way to go :D :D

anyhow....while in the i would definately replace the axle shaft u-joints(which will be toast at 200k), inner and outer bearings, etc.

make sure that you torque the ball joints...very important......

[Kaiserjeeps]

Hey where can I get one of them spindle puller thingys??? Thats Cool! I want to buy not rent...

[mdill]

Spindle puller Snap on YA2220 For the adapter. I use my OTC slide hammer to
power it.

Mike D.

[Kaiserjeeps]

Sweet Mdill! I already have a huge snapon slide hammer puller, I wonder if the spindle attachment will thread on. Thanks a bunch....Kaiserjeeps..(Al)...

[2ndtimearround]

Went and looked. My Spindle puller (it is a Snap-on) has two sets of threads for the slide hammer:
1/2" - 20 and 5/8" - 18 (my original post was wrong on the size).

Another good tool to have is a spindle rethreader. Also available from Snap-On, Part #RD7-25 is the right side for most FSJ Front D44s (1 5/8" - 16).

BTW with a spindle rethreader and the spindle puller I scrounge U-Pull it yards for axle parts.
You should see the look on the operators' faces when I repair the damaged spindle thread on a heavily rusted axle and then pull it off. :D :D

I collect Jeeps and the tools to work on em. :D