Hey all,
Doing the front end stuff and ran into a snag.
Upper ball joints pressed in fine. However, the lower ball joints when sitting in place, are too long for the ball joint press to fit over the ball joint, and press tube assembly for pressing. Do I get the ball joint started with a hammer to make enough room for the press to fit over?
Thanks in advance

 

I don't remember specifically, you kinda have to keep playing with alll the adapters to get it right. You may have had to press in the lower one first, so that the screw shaft could be in the upper balljoint hole? I did them on my 95 1500, and they're a pain just because of this.....Figuring out which combination of adapters.

 

I know...this just seems crazy...everything else, upper balljoints, tie rod ends, front shocks going smooth. If I was just smarter than the ball joint and the press I would be done by now enjoying a cold beverage!

 

Duff, What I did on mine was to put the front end on jackstands, then put a floor jack under the lower arm and literally beat the lowers out of the arm. When I put the new ones in, I put the jack under the ball joint and pounded the arm down over the ball joint.
Tom

 

Not a bad Idea!
I got the right side in. A strange and BAD thing happened on the left side...using the press on the lwr ball joint "popped" in like it should BUT when I took the press of the ball joint will just fall out. Somehow I widened the whole. Makes no sense to me. I have no idea what to do now or how I could widen the whole on that control arm.
Duff

 

Put he joint back in to find where you need to work. Use the hammer to reshape the control arm, back down or up, to make the hole round again, then put the joint in one end of the press and adapters on the other side, proceed carefully. MOOG joints are actually a little larger in diameter, I think, if that would help, and they are also greasable.

 

put new upper - lower and use the press. dont use the hammer

 

Got 'em all on there.
The hole for the lwr ball joint in the control arm was out of round from the old / broken upper ball joint causing uneven stress on the lower parts. Was looking at big $ for a new control arm until I talked to an old guy who has been around for a while. Told me what to do. Long story short...starting with a center punch and working my way up to a 3/8 in. chisel tip I was able to reshape the out of round lower control arm ball joint hole. Working the bottom "lip" from underneath the control arm with a chisel and a 3# hammer. It only took 2 of us about 4 hours to put it back to good as new. Pretty tired and sore right now and I wouldn't reccomend this much work if you got the money for a new control arm, but it is done, along with the new tie rod ends, and shocks. The front end feels better than new! Now for the back brakes...oh and did I mention the slush box still needs attention. Sheesh! I envy the guys with the new trucks!
Thanks for all the help!
Duff