upper ball joint issues

yah ive been searching for hours, and on several different days.
ive got the cool little split ring thing i borrowed from jeepfreak, i rented a bj press from autozone with the 4wd adapter stuff. had a great time pressing out old joints, and started throwing the new ones in. pass side lower went in no prob. pass side upper will not line up and press in evenly at all.
it kind of wiggles around but wont line up with the angle the "C" is at, and keeps pressing one side further down and faster than the other side of the ball joint.
so is this bad for the "c" to have to whack the joint back out and keep trying?
i feel like a damned moron for not getting it to go right in, took a buddy and i hours of attempts and still no luck.
so my question is: do you guys press them in unevenly and it works out, with tons of force, or is there an angled bj sleeve i can use? the autozone stuff isnt the best for sure, but the 4x4 bj kit helps.
but its not working for me.
yah its my first time doing ball joints.
the axle isnt on the veichle either.
i at least need to vent. and could use someone else saying that they got their ball joints cockeyed and pressed em out a bunch and didnt screw up the "c"s . anyway, most threads and writeups ive read say simply "press in new upper ball joint" but dont talk about it not lining up and going in cockeyed. could i have screwed something up?
-blondejoncherokee

The last upper I had start crooked, I cleaned out the hole with a round wire brush (3M pad would likely also work fine), put a coat of grease on it and after applying a little pressure, I whacked the side of the knuckle opposite the hole for the ball joint with a hammer, medium hard. Jars the ball joint a little and is said to slightly deform the hole, whatever, it worked out for me.
I kept tapping the knuckle opposite the hole with a hammer and reapplying pressure until it straightened out. I also eye balled it and shimmed my press with some flat steel a little to make it as straight as possible, looked at the press from a few different angles, though this was likely unnecessary.
I actually had more trouble with my lowers, the angle of the press seemed to be more pronounced.
The ball joint may not be round, if you have a micrometer or something similar you may want to check it for round.

blondejoncherokee said:

so my question is: do you guys press them in unevenly and it works out, with tons of force, or is there an angled bj sleeve i can use? the autozone stuff isnt the best for sure, but the 4x4 bj kit helps.
-blondejoncherokee

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I use OTC 7894 do a search and you will see it comes with an angled adapter

ive already searched and found that kit before. i wasnt too stoked with the price of around 130$ from napa. i guess im trying to find ways to do it for cheap, like im prob gonna go to home depot and buy some pipe and cut it at an angle and use that. at napa auto thats part number if it helps anyone with more cashola: ser 3479.
so where did you get that part number from? a specific website or is it a dealer part number? was it cheaper than 130$?
-jon

that is an OTC part number. they build decent quality stuff and put together some good kits. If you search around, you can find their stuff a lot less online.

Wow your Autozone had the 4wd adapter parts? Mine looked at me like I was speaking Russian when I asked for it.

the guy didnt even know they had it. i had to tell him to check for it, cuz it came up on his screen when pulled the ball joint press up, and i said hey whats that, and he said, oh theres no other kit with this. and then there was. too bad they dont have the dodge/jeep kit though....

after calling around to some otc suppliers i will have one delivered tomorrow for 89$. thats alot better than 132 from napa. free would be best.

alright, bought new uppers, pressed in fine without the kit. they were napa, guy at the counter said they were moog. had way less of inverted lip on em, also freezed em overnight, and heated the inner c with a propane torch for like a min or two, not enough to do any harm, enough to make it warm and the ball joint was ice cold. pressed right in even as could be. i guess thats why they are 62$ and the cheapos are 10$.
but i havent finished torquing down the nuts on the steering arm. it moves, but not very easily. is this normal or did i screw something up? is it supposed to move very free or maybe itll break in once its all put together? i dunnno...any ideas?

yah the steering arm doesnt turn easily right after i torqued everything down to 70 ft pds. is there a break in period or are one of the joints screw up? if anyone has their 30 off and can turn the knuckle? im pretty sure it should turn easily.

I put in a set of 4 Moog balljoints in early 2008. The knuckles turn freely by hand but definitely tighter than the old ones that were in there prior!

they turn but it takes a little work for sure. the uppers are moog, to note, neither upper would move before installation, maybe due to freezing them, but the lowers moved around , but they were spicer cheapos. im a little confused. i can definetly move the arms by hand, but not easily, it takes a little force, does that sound right? maybe its just cuz they are new and tight?

There is actually a test for that, but darned if I can rmemeber it. Is it possible you turned the bottom ball joint adjustable seat out while you were removing the bottom nut? If the shaft spins it can back out the the bottom seat. Just a thought, the distance between the top and bottom ball joint shaft seat may be off. A little off doesn't seem to hurt anything, I've never tried a lot off to see what happens.

well ive replaced the bottom ball joint seats with the new ones that came with the lower joints. do you mean that i pushed it up into the joint? that coulda happened i guess, ill take a look, but if that hasnt happened and there was no ball joint contact with any part of the press then it must mean everything is alright or i need to readjust the lower seats again?

i also can note that neither ball joint shaft was spinning while installing the nuts.

If the shaft didn't spin when you removed or re installed the nut, the bottom shaft adjuster shouldn't have moved any.
I was thinking, having the bottom shaft adjuster way out might cause one or the other of the joints to bind. No real info to back this up, like I said, just a thought.

im gonna check around. i may have toasted the uppers, but even they didnt move around before install, they definitely dont move around now. i can move the steering arms by hand but its difficult. i dont know if i need to install it first and then just see what happens. i measured the split ring in 2.06 inches from the bottom and torqued everything appropriately.

blondejoncherokee said:

im gonna check around. i may have toasted the uppers, but even they didnt move around before install, they definitely dont move around now. i can move the steering arms by hand but its difficult. i dont know if i need to install it first and then just see what happens. i measured the split ring in 2.06 inches from the bottom and torqued everything appropriately.

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I'm hoping that 2.06 you wrote is a decimal place error (I doubt it's even possible). It's .206 inches or slightly less than 1/4", measured to the side with the slots for installing it.

i meant .206 sorry, yah it was 230am here at the time, id had a couple of beers, wasnt being too careful. 3am and 5 beers and wrenching on the jeep when it was freezing out side.