How difficult are the ball joints to replace on my 2wd truck? Im no master mechanic but I know how to turn a wrench. Unfortunately I havent had any experience with ball joints. Any special tools needed?

Whats a reasonable price for a shop to do this?
It looks like some HUGE rivets holding it to the control arm, im guessing you have to drill them and replace them with bolts?

 

http://www.quad4x4.com/Dodge%20Frt%2...all_Joint_Kits

 

You can buy a ball joint press at Harbor Freight tools. Or you can rent one. I've changed some ball joints, but not on a Dodge truck. Did my '90 Dodge B150 van a few years ago, and a '73 Pontiac. 83 Chevy Cavalier also.

 

I own my own shop. Takes me about 35-40 min to replace both sides on a 2wd upper and lower and have the vehicle backed out. Thats with a coffee while doing it. They are not hard at all. The rivets can be ground down and knocked out with a punch. I use a ZIPGUN (biggest baddest air chissel made) with a large chissel and cuts them rivets in about 3 bumps of the chissel. You will need a ball joint press to get the lowers in. Like said earlier Harbor Freight has them.

 

so do I need any special tools to replace it besides a ball joint press?
I dont have to remove the tie rods or anything like that?
Can I do it without removing the springs or the control arms?

thanks for the help

 

Is it harder or more expensive on a 4wd? Mine are shot.

 

Have a friend that bought the greasable Moog joints from OReilly Auto Parts. They loaned him the necessary tools to replace them. I replaced mine with the Moog joints and they have over 200K on them. They don't show any wear, yet.

 

im thinking about going with orileys but they are 400 bucks for all four of them, ouch

they dont look that hard to replace, just have to take out the control arm and put it on the drill press to get the rivets out.

 

I pulled the control arms out to do the work. Wound up replacing the bushings while I had them out. If you replace with the greasable joints, you will never have to replace them. Should be a law against using the junk the factory does. You can probably shop around and get a better price but I could not find any others that were greasable. Surely it would not cost 5 cents each to install fittings in all replacement joints.

 

Im guessing the orileys ones are grease-able

Im wondering if I should replace all four of them while I got the truck apart.
The alignment shop said they tops were OKKKKK but had a little bit of play

 

I just did mine today, first time, and i'll tell you it was a pain in the ***. I rented the ball joint press from Shucks. and purchased the ball joints (moog), top and bottom, from www.rockauto.com for like $230. YOur first time will be the hardest, then after that it will be easier.

 

Why do you need the ball joint press? Ive never done the lowers before but it looks like you drill the four rivets and take the nut from the other end I dont see where you need the press. Im going to use the moog ball joints

 

the oem non greasable are as good or better than greasable
200,000 miles on oem is good for the weight of the front end.
i remember changing ball joints on cars i've had over the years that were greasable with a lot less miles.....
also i don't think greasless after market ones are available. if they were, thats what i would buy

 

I just did yesterday the BJ on my 4x4.

It was not a funny job, be sure to get a press and the extension tubes also.

 

Also be VERY SURE to install the rotor dust shield correctly !!!!

I put it on backwards on left side and I had to remove almost everything again just to turn the darn shield around

Of course when I did the right side I had it pointed correctly....but flipped over !!! I had to remove almost everything again.

One side took 6 hours to do, the other side 1.5hrs (including the screwups)