I am in the middle of "trying" to replace the lower ball joint in my 95 2wd 2500 diesel dodge. Do I really have to remove the coil spring like the manual says? I thought if I compressed it that would work fine. Any advice? I have broken 2 pickle forks trying to seperate and no movement what so ever.

 

Then I'd remove the spring like it said and take it to a press to be removed.

Good Luck
Mark

 

northern tool or harbor freight make a ball joint puller (like a big C clamp) for about 30$

works great for u-joints too

 

OMG is that thing handy. I'm on my second one. I like to use it for ujoints and also for removing spring eye bushings.

 

give it a lil bit of heat...then put in the fork...put some pressure on the fork and hit the housing with a hammer from the side...if you'rer worried about the heat...then just hit the housing while applying tension with the fork...

 

I want to thank everyone for the help! I ended up having to replace the arms, for some reason I have the model that has them welded in. Just my luck!

 

i know this is an old post, but thought of somthing that i used as well as the harbor freight puller.

in addition to using the puller, when i had my spindle on the table. I clamped it down, hit it with the torch then used an air hammer to persuade the old ones out.
between that and the puller, swapping the ball joints themselves was the easy part of the process.

now if dodge would put spaces in the hub extensions to get an impact on, like the ford has, ball joints and rotors would be a breeze.