A friend of mines ball joints are toast and I told him I would help him change them so I would be that much more educated when it came time to change mine. I have been reading on here about the how to's, GREAT!! write up by the way Mr Gadget, and see that some people say the press from harbor freight won't work and some people have bought one from harbor freight just for the job but don't say that it actually worked for them.

So has anyone used a harbor freight ball joint removal tool on their Ram to remove their ball joints?

Thanks,
Larry.

 

I just did my BJ's using Mr. Gadgets awesome write up. Had the same dilema with the press and I ended up just dropping the $$ for the quad4x4 one and it worked great. I don't plan on using it for other vehicles so i liked the fact that it only comes with the cups you need for the AAM 9.25, keeps it simple.

 

I used the harbor freight press. You just have to know that cranking down on it won't work. You can bend it. You put a good load on it, and then smack the end with a 2.5 sledge. That pops them loose. Repeat as necessary. You can also just rent the press from AutoZone for "free".

 

Another source for a bal joint press is your local parts store. Places like Advance and AutoZone have tools that you can check out if you leave a deposit. That's how I did them on my 2nd gen. Advance had a kit with 23 pieces in it. Also Mr Gadgets writeup should be showing up in the article section soon.

 

I just changed mine, I used the AP master set, astro pneumatic. No problems with the press at all, getting the lower one out with the adapters in the set is a tight fit but it does work and I didnt damage the press even with full torque on it. Cost around $145 for the set and can also be used for other things, ujoints etc.. FWIW a basic set with just the 3 cups would not have gotten the job done.

 

That AP set looks pretty good. Works on u-joints as well. Think I may be making a purchase.

Thanks