ball joints how to?

[homebru420]

Anybody got a good ball joints "how to" for the late 80's GW's.

Need to replace mine and the Haynes manual says "take it to a reputable mechanic".

Apparently, after showing us all how to rebuild an engine in Chapter Two, ball joints would just be too difficult for us to swap out.

Any help would be appreciated.

Brian

[Bob Barry]

Yes, that is really helpful advice Haynes gives us there. Pretty soon I imagine every chapter beyond changing the oil filter and putting on a spare tire will simply consist of the directions "Take it to a reputable mechanic". :mad:

It's a really easy job, but you'll have to borrow some tools (specifically a ball-joint press) from Autozone to do it.

1. Jack up the truck and remove the front wheels.

2. Unbolt the brake caliper (compress it with a big C-clamp a bit to loosen its grip on the brake disc) and securely hang it out of the way.

3. Remove the hub cover, and remove the external snap-ring with some snap-ring pliers, the drive gear and sleeve (or spring), and the spindle nuts with a 4-prong spindle nut socket (another specialty tool).

4. Place your hand over the end of the hub opening to catch the outer bearing, and pull the hub/rotor assembly off the spindle. This is a good time to repack the wheel bearings as well, for which you'd also need a new inner grease-seal.

5. Unbolt the 7/16" headed bolt holding on the backing-plate to the knuckle, then remove the six backing-plate/spindle nuts. Slide the spindle off the outer axle stub-shaft. This is also a good time to grease the inner spindle bearing (it's usually neglected).

6. Carefully slide the axle-shaft out (this is a good time to check the condition of the u-joint in the axle-shafts).

7. Now you see the two nuts holding the steering knuckle to the axle housing. Remove those two bolts, and hit the "ears" that the ball-joint studs pass through on opposite sides with hammers until the joints pop out (this will take some time).

8. Once you have the steering-knuckle in-hand, you can press out the old ball-joints and press in the new ones with the tool you borrowed from Autozone and an impact-gun, or you can carry them to a shop to be done.

9. Once the new joints are in, grease them if there is any provision, and slide them into place on the axle housing. There is a sleeve in the upper ear of the axle housing end that has to be tightened down with a special socket, as per factory instructions (don't have those handy right now; somebody else will have to post those). I just left mine in place, and it seems to be fine.

10. The rest of the job is simply the reverse of disassembly; follow the procedure for tightening the spindle nuts as described in the front wheel bearing maintenance section at the front of the Haynes manual.

This is one of those jobs where it's cost and labor-effective to check and replace other things at the same time, namely the axle u-joints, the wheel-bearings and the brake-pads/rotor. Things might be rusty and tough to remove if the truck hasn't been serviced in a while (or ever), but once it's apart, it can be serviced much easier in the future.

Good luck! This job is not the Rocket-science that Haynes makes it out to be.

[64Trvlr]

Great description Bob. One other thing,after removing the spindle nuts and the outer wheel bearing if you put one of the nuts back on a few threads and then pull hard on the rotor you'll pop inner seal off so you can get to the inner wheel bearing. The only other thing I'd add is to use some anti seize on the bolt threads as you reassemble. It will make things much easier next time you take it apart.
:cool:

[Bob Barry]

Great suggestion for popping off the inner-seal! Does this method permit you to re-use that seal, or does it need to be replaced like when you use a seal-puller?

Heh, as for anti-sieze; if you looked at my truck's spindle-assemblies and didn't know better, you'd think I'd detailed my front suspension with aluminum spray-paint... smile.gif

[64Trvlr]

Bob
I don't know if you can reuse the seal or not, if it was fairly new you might be able to reuse it. I always replace it and haven't paid much attention to the condition of the seal when it comes out.
:cool:

[giddyup]

When I did mine I also had to go buy the sockets to get the knuckle off I did not have ones big enough. The lower was 1 1/8 and the upper was 1 5/16 if I remember right. Also I had to replace a tie rod and the one small lower bolt holding the backing plate on broke on BOTH sides. I did not put the bolt back. The spindle was a bear on mine, I had to keep wacking it with a chisel and large BFH.

1987 Grand Wagoneer.

[tuckers89GW]

I took mine over to my next door neighbors. He has a lift and ALL the tools. he has a repair shop. Only cost $45 to do the drivers side, parts included. Only reason I didn't want to do it myself, is I would have been forever and a day trying to get the ball joint nuts loose. Those babies were rusty and tight.

[ibnfe]

For the upper sleeve, remove the old one, then tighten (just enough to keep the lower joint from spinning) the top ball joint to seat the lower joint. Tighten and torque the lower, then remove the castle nut from the upper. thread the upper joint sleeve in place and torque it to 50-60 ft-lbs (I think that's the torque), then reinstall the upper castle nut and torque as well. I have never really adhered to a torque value on the joint nuts themselves, just ALOT of elbow grease! I'm sure there's a number out there somewhere. :D

[ibnfe]

Oh yeah, you have to disconnect the appropriate side tie rod end as well, which may result in the need of another "special tool". Just so you know... :D

[Ralph]

I did mine recently, and the part that got me stuck was the proper torque sequence and settings for the upper and lower balljoints bolts as the knuckle is replaced on the yoke.

If memory serves me correctly, I believe Bob Barry set me straight on this. So I hope he will add that information here.

It's very important to do this step correctly, however, because you want to ensure a particular balance of the compression/tension forces the two balljoints create on the yoke when mounted.

[Careful34]

I just did the ball joints on one side of my wag, and I though I would add my aquired wisdom here for future readers. First let me say Thanks Bob! your instructions were extremly helpful!

You'll need largeish snap ring pliers for the external snap ring.

First problem I ran into was after taking off the first spindle nut, there was a spacer washer I had to get out before taking off the second spindle nut. This should pull straight out. If you don't have any needle nose pliers with really thin tips it can be hard. I made a little hook type of tool out of a coat hanger and caught the edge, then it came out easily.

Second, after banging off my brake mounting plate, my spindle didn't want to come off. I ended up holding a piece of wood on it with one hand and smacking it with a 5lb hammer with the other. When it finaly separated a bit I hammered a screwdriver into the crack to widen it. Finaly came off.

If the cotter pin in your upper joint is rusted in like mine was you can get it out by breaking off as much as you can (just bend it back and forth till it breaks) then tap out the inside bit with a long thin drift or blunted nail.

1 1/8 is correct for the lower joint nut, 1 5/16 sounds right for the upper. 1 1/4 was the largest socket I had so I used a pipe wrench instead.

When Bob says it will take a some time to bang off the steering knukle, he's not kidding. Took me about 15 minuted with the 5lb hammer, hitting HARD. Expect to round over those little "ears" pretty well.

As ibnfe said you'll also need to disconnect the tie rod end. If you don't have a tie rod seperator (or even if you do, cause they tear up the rubber boot) you can loosen the tie rod nut untill it's flush with the tip of the tie rod "bolt" and smack the tip with a hammer to pop it out with out messing up the threads or boot.

If you're replacing both joints, don't install the new lower joint before you remove and install the upper joint. The screw of the press gos through the lower ball joint eye during these procedures! If you don't have an impact wrench I think you'll at least need a vise to put the press in and a long cheater bar. Extra hands would be very helpful at this point.

When I put my upper joint back in I must have left left some crud in the seat where it gos in the knuckel because it didn't seat all the way. I didn't feel like taking it back out (probably should have) so when I went to put the knuckle back on the axel, the top joint bottomed first and the bottom nut just spun the bolt. To remeidy this I spun the upper sleeve up to flush with the surface of the knuckle with the tips of some needle nose pliers, this allowed the lower bolt to bottom in the axel eye and stop spinning. I tightented down the lower joint then spun the sleeve back down as far as I could, tapping it in with a screwdriver and hammer in the slots because the needle nose tips wouldn't reach the sleeve with the upper bolt in the way, and tightened the upper bolt. You could make the special tool needed to adjust this upper sleeve yourself out of a deep well socket or a piece of pipe with a Dremal tool after seeing the replacement sleeve that comes with the new upper joint. Would be time well spent before starting the project.

When replacing the spindle, if you decide to install 6 new nuts they're fine thread.

The spindle nut with little bump on it is the inner nut and the bump points out. It shoud go through one of the holes in the spacing washer.

Hope this info is useful to someone, someday.

[ September 12, 2002, 10:30 PM: Message edited by: Careful34 ]

[scotty]

a seal in good shape removed in the manner 64 described can usually be reused. i take mine apart enuff,i dont always replace it,sometimes ill put the old one back in.

dont have aything else to add. smile.gif yall pretty well decribed it all...

[backpack09]

Another post I would like seen added to the tech section.

[caionneach]

With the new board software looks like we no longer have the link to email the thread to our inbox for safe keeping. :(

Kenneth

[flatbackdragon]

accidently found a link to balljoints at fsjnet(?)

http://12.29.16.230/mmimages/jeepdocs/dana44balljoints.pdf

(i see I need to change all the stuff behind my name after work tonight!)

[Tad]

With the new board software looks like we no longer have the link to email the thread to our inbox for safe keeping. :(

Kenneth
Kenneth, it's still there at the top (at least I see it).
http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=741

flatbackdragon, that is J10Mike's writeup I am pretty sure.

[crazydog]

Kenneth, it's still there at the top (at least I see it).
http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=741

flatbackdragon, that is J10Mike's writeup I am pretty sure.

It is also a function in IE.