03 4x4 2500. I had three ball joints basically falling apart. Have the hubs out, knuckles off, driveshafts out of the way, the whole bit.. but now I cant for the life of me get the ball joints out. Already broken an OTC ball joint press, and some autozone ones. Also broke my wrench on the OTC ball joint press.

Ideas?

I don't care about breaking/burning the existing ball joints cause I have DynaTrac ones to put in.. but ***....
No truck unless someone has a brighter idea than me...

heat? If so, where? Only have a propane handheld. Can I cut them out with my 4 1/2 cut-off wheel grinder and dremel somehow?
No compressed air, this is my driveway...

Thanks
Justin

 

I dont think propane has enought heat try heating the # out of it and spray it with wd40 and let it cool and then try a ball joint press

 

Load the ball joint press the tap around the edge, you will hear a nice pop when it lets loose.

 

Thanks guys tried the 2nd one and broke both my hammers LOL

Will try the heat tomorrow... out of daylight :/

Thanks... Will let y'all know.

 

Some heat and PB blaster along with some patients works wonders. For the lowers I use a air hammer while I'm putting about 100lbs of weight on it will drive them out easier than with a press. Be sure you have all c clips out to start with. To prevent this happening again, clean everything up real well with some steel wool or scotch brite pad and a decent coating of antiseze before you throw it back together will make future jobs a breeze.

 

This may sound dumb but i had this problem with my 95 are you pressing the right way?

 

LOL yea I got that wrong on the first one

Then it started going smoother... got em all now. Dynatracs are in.

Anyone have a pic of what fitting I'm supposed to use for that bottom "zerk" like grease fitting that's more flat than the normal ones with a nipple on em?

 

There is a "needle" attachment for your grease gun. They are commonly used to grease pneumatic impact wrenches and other air tools.

John

 

There is also a slide on sideways attachment for the lower BJ. I have been unsuccessful at getting the needle type on all of the joints I have replaced recently. Maybe the u-joint is larger than previous.

 

It could be. However, it sounds like the type of fitting is basically a flush mount one so there is no "ball" to put the sideways attachment on.