Jason West

Changing the ball joints on my 97 Ram heard the hub can be difficult to remove does any body have any tips on removing with out damaging?

Mr. Jimmy

If it is a 2WD shoudn't be a problem. If it is 4WD may be a little tougher but don't let that discourage you. Do a search for ball joint removal, there is plenty of information along with pics that make it easy by placing a socket extension against the hub and turning steering wheel to pop it loose. Worked great for me

vssman

There's four 12pt cap screws (9/16 socket I think) holding the hub to the knuckle. There are several ways to pull the hub including the one mentioned above. You can also loosen all of the screw a bit and hit each one (cross pattern) with a brass hammer or a brass punch and hammer. Pick up a big ol' bottle of anti-seeze and coat the heck out of it before you put it all back together. The other thing you can do is take a big hammer and give the hub a few hard smacks - without hitting the wheel studs of course - to help loosen any rusting. If you can see the split between the hub and knuckle from the back of the axle, give it a few shots of penetrating fluid.