:gee: OK, now a little poorer and wiser, sorer and achier, bruised and banged, please allow me to share what I learned about changing XJ ball joints and tie rods.
1. Never pickle fork off the top joint first. This is how I bent my axle yokes at both ends from 28mm to 35mm, about $300 bucks (at Walt and Vern's for a new front suspension assembly) of not cool. The ball joint pickle fork tines are farther apart than the tines for the tie rod ends, be sure to get the right one from NAPA and don't use a tie rod pickle fork on ball joints. Pickle forking the top joint spread the upper yoke upwards apart from the lower one, PERMANENTLY by 7mm. Who knew it was so fragile and easily bent? Not I obviously.
1. Start by loosening both the upper and lower ball joint nuts most of the way. But don't remove them entirely so they can keep the knuckle from dropping off onto your foot. Wonder how I found that out?
2. Then, here is the key: pickle fork the BOTTOM joint a little bit, then the top a little bit and keep going back and forth until they pop, but make sure the bottom one pops first or you will bend your yoke. The upper and lower faces should remain at 28mm from each other. Once both joints pop, then place a brass hammer against the striking spot on the top of the knuckle and hit it with a short handled 3 pound sledge until it drops to the nuts. That's how I got the knuckles off w/o wrecking the yokes this time. If the upper and lower faces of the yoke are 28mm when you start and farther apart than that by the time you have the knuckle off, you just bent your yoke and it's time for a new axle.
3 When pressing the ball joints in or out, the OTC press does best with a 13/16 socket in 1/2 inch drive and a nice long handled ratchet. Crank tight, whack the yoke with a brass hamer, repeat until off or on. The whacks release the energy stored up by the press. Don't crank too tight, just crank tight, wack, crank tight again, repeat.
4 When pressing the new joints in, remember that the OTC press insert 521803 is assymetrical. You must rotate is so the tallest side is outboard or the whole assembly will be tilted and jam the ball joint instead of pressing it. Guess how I figgered that one out?
5. Grease up the joints as soon as they are in. The lower ones will require a hose or angle adapter for your grease gun. My gun just had a straight pipe on it, and I had to get a flexi hose for it so I could grease the lower joints. Be sure to have enough grease for the job, I ran out halfway and that meant a run to Schucks just before they closed at 9pm.
6. All the steering tie rods come off with just a easy hit with the pickle fork. Nothing trick here to assembling the steering stuff, but make sure that all joints are perpendicular to each other before tightening up all the joints and make sure the kotter pin holes are facing an angle that works to get them in.
7. Once assembled, I used a level horizontally across the tires to orient a laser level and used that forward and back of the tires for alignment. The turnbuckle to the steering box joint is used to get the steering wheel centered again. Mine wasn't centered, but it was easy to adjust.
Armed with this advise and a good quality ball joint removal and install kit (not Harbor Freight), hopefully your ball joint adventure will take one less day and $300 less money than mine did.
Bob.
