Pressing ball joints

In order to do a lower ball joint, I have to have the upper out first, correct?

With the rental units that I can get at the parts store, I don't really see any other way of doing a lower with being able to put the long threaded rod through the hole on the top of the C on the end of the axle.

Thoughts?

sounds about right to me

thats what i do take the top one out for the threaded part of the press.

On the reccomendation of someone i used to tear a piece of cardboard and make a tube to go around the threads of the press where it goes through where the upper b.j. is. Supposedly to protect the surface but i skipped this last time .
if your putting that much pressure on the side of the opening youre probably on crooked anyway.

we liked out huge press kit with a bunch of attachments so much we bought it and it gets used more than i thought

These should help...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3jjPouRdFw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYcqNAhk-co&feature=related

GL

I changed the lower without touching the upper. In addition to the loan-a-press, I used an assortment of randmom pipe sections and spacers to make happen. It sucked, thats what I get for being a cheap ass.

Thats the way i do it.

A word of advice, when using a sub par or non vehicle specific ball joint press, do yourself a favor, run to harbor freight and pick up the ball joint adapter set, that thing has saved me many headaches.

Cottontail said:

In order to do a lower ball joint, I have to have the upper out first, correct?

With the rental units that I can get at the parts store, I don't really see any other way of doing a lower with being able to put the long threaded rod through the hole on the top of the C on the end of the axle.

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

Correct - you need the overhead room for the screw ram.

Thanks for all the replys y'all. I got this done about 5 days ago with no issues. An air impact wrench to turn the ram and a BFH helped it along just fine.

Hope this thread helps someone else tacking ball joints for the first time!