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Hi Folks - I’ve been looking through the Web for days on information that could help me replace my Ford pickup’s ball-joints, all to no avail. None of the pictures look the same, none of the instructions describe the same and the manual is pretty much useless. So, I’m hoping you may benefit from my experience as I wail away with my mini-sledge in an effort to do this myself. Oh, and I’ve included pictures! Rusted would be an understatement if that helps you set the mood.

1. First and easiest, jack stand the truck (parking break and wheel blocks please) and remove the tire.
2. Remove the break calipers. Unbolt the retaining clip, remove the clip (mallet and punch) and jimmy the caliper up and out off of the disk rotor. Mine required some gentle persuasion with a rubber mallet. I tied the caliper up and out of the way onto the top of the spring with twine. (Don’t kink the break lines!!!)
3. Remove the Tie-Rod end from the knuckle. I removed the cotter pin, unbolted the rod and then used a pickle fork and a few strong hits from the hammer. Warning, this may cause the Tie-Rod ball joint damage.
4. You should end up with something looking like this.
5. The top ball joint will have what I believe is called a camber adjustment or split nut. This is integral to the knuckle and does not have to be removed to remove the ball joint. Here’s a picture of the upper ball joint. The split nut looks like it has ridges for a hand twist or something. Trust me, it won’t twist even if you have a huge wrench tugging on it. Ask me how I know…
6. The bottom ball joint looks a bit different from the top. First off, the nut and bolt are much larger and it does not protrude above the lower fork like the top does. Sorry, the picture is bit blurry. Yes, the top and bottom ball joints are NOT the same! Even if some auto parts website would lead you to believe as much…
7. Rotor. Pop the dust cap, remove the cotter pin and securing bolts. Pull the rotor straight out but be careful of the front bearing as it will pop out. Remove the rear bearing seal and remove the rear bearing. Now would be a GREAT time to clean out the old grease from everything (I used some solvent and a solvent brush) and repack all the bearings with fresh grease.
8. Remove the brake dust shield by removing the three securing bolts. By far the easiest step of this whole process!
9. Now you’re left with a the naked mole rat. No, naked knuckle, naked knuckle! This part helped me vent some frustration. By putting the pickle fork under the top ball joint’s rubber seal and smashing away with a heavy hammer, the knuckle popped and down. Caution, it’s HEAVY! Don’t stand underneath this while you’re doing this. Take the knuckle away, clean it up and put it aside for later.
10. Ok, so now you’re staring at a big open whole in side of your truck and have the fork of the I beam with two stuck ball joints in it. Damn they’re stuck in there but good! Yeah, I had to break down and use a real tool, almost. My brother-in-law was nice enough to drop by and let me use a threaded compression c-clamp. OK, but that picture is a bit ahead of us.
11. Removing the top ball joint. I removed the top ball joint’s ring clip. (Yes, I used a flat bladed screw driver). I put on the clamp and prostrated myself in applying enough force to push the joint down and out. Once it started it got easier but DAMN it was hard to start. Here’s the knuckle with the top out. You really need to remove the top ball joint first because you’ll need that open hole to put the c-clamp’s threaded top through.
12. Removing the bottom ball joint. Wow, I thought the top ball joint was hard to remove. The bottom ball joint doesn’t have a clamp. Doesn’t protrude through the bottom fork of the I-beam. It’s just kind of pressed in there. According to all the documentation I could find, it does press out the bottom, it’s just REALLY REALLY REALLY stuck the heck in there.
13. All right, so the bottom joint isn’t coming out easy. Now I’m pulling the I-Beam axle so I can take it to a shop to get the ball joints pulled and the new ones pushed in correctly. Why does every task become a project in itself.
14. Took out the spring using some chains to keep it compressed. Here’s a hint, either use two sets of chains per spring or just go out and get a real spring compression kit.
15. Here’s where it took on the “project” aspect. The riser arm is connected to the front I-Beam with a 10″ BOLT. It comes in from the bottom through the riser and the beam, is then exposed to the elements for about 8 inches and then through the beam and arm again where there is a nut on the other side (1-1/8″). The nut came off without much effort but the exposed part of the bolt created so much surface friction that it took FOREVER to get the bolt out. Forever, several knuckles and a snapped 1/4″ non-ratchet socket wrench. I had even taken my sledge to the bolt, nothing!! Anyway, after several days with penetrating oil, I was FINALLY able to get the bolt to spin, slightly, using a breaker bar. Once I was able to spin the bolt I used some sand paper to clean up the outside of the bolt. Then and only then was I able to slowly pound out the bolt with the sledge.
16. Once “The Bolt” was removed, the arm connecting bolts at the other end came right out and I was able to remove the first I-Beam. And I thought working on your vehicle was supposed to be relaxing!
17. HORRAY!! Once the I-Beam was removed I was able to re-apply the ball joint press. After putting on as much pressure as possible, WHACK! with the sledge and the lower ball joint popped right the heck out. It was very, very, very, very, very rusted in there.
18. Preped the pieces for reassembly by taking off all the rust I could, rust treatment, some primer and either flat black or some nice bright Dupli-Color Ford Red for the I-Beam.
19. If I may make a quick suggestion. While everything is apart, replace what you can NOW, it only makes sense. Rubber bushings - replace, seals - replace, bearings - REPLACE! They’re really not that expensive and take a S#!T load of work to get at them again if they go bad.
20. Presto chango, she is done! For the DAYS it took me to get to this point, it took me less than a day to put all the pieces back together.
21. Rented a ball-joint press from AutoZone. $99 up front, keep it as long as you want, return it and get your $99 back. WHAT A DEAL! In went the ball joints. (NOTE: The new bottom ball joint has a snap-ring groove near its top but when fully inserted it only presses flush to the bottom arm of the I-Beam. Just like the original and unlike what the manual calls for. yeah, go figure.
22. In went the refurbed I-Beam.
23. In went the de-rusted bolt from Hell. (Don’t forget your Torque settings!)
24. On went the spring base.
25. In went the spring, retaining clip and lower bolt.
26. On went the knuckle.
27. On went the steering arm.
28. Popped on the treated dust shield.
29. In went the new bearings and seal onto the new (don’t get me started) rotor.
30. On went the rotor.
31. Some grease on the brake pathways to ease movement. Pressed the caliper piston down with a block of wood and a large C-clamp. Hint: Turn a few times until it gets hard, wait for the fluid to escape and it will again turn easy for a few. Keep going until it’s flush. New pads (don’t forget the anti-rattle clip!!!) and quick tap to get the raceway key in place and the breaks are done.
32. On goes the tire and Boom Goes the Dynamite!
33. NEXT SIDE!!! Uhhhhhg……

OK, the next side took a LOT less time than the first.  All in all, the second side took a total of about 4 hours.  Sill hight for a professional, WAY low for someone like me!!

The only problem that I really had was the assembly of the knuckle onto the ball sockets.  When I took the knuckle off I had to use a pickle fork and the mini sledge.  When I put it back on it took the full weight of the truck to push the knuckle tightly back onto the ball joints.  Ok, the problem comes into play with the bottom ball joint nut.  When I try to tighten the bolt it only gets so tight before it starts spinning the bolt of the ball joint and I can find no way of stopping that.  My only recourse was to apply some thread lock and tighten it as much as I could.

The good news is that it test drove without any problems at all.  Good damn thing too!  Steering felt good, no vibrations, no pull, and most importantly it didn’t all drop apart into a thousand pieces in the middle of the street!

Happy it’s done?  Yes.  Glad I did it?  Maybe later but the frustration factor is still high.  Would I do it again?  Errrr, probably not.

The only real advice I could give to anyone who’s thinking of doing this themselves, besides not to, is to make sure you have all the right tools.  I begged and borrowed a lot of tools to get this project done, I had some of my own and then I improvised for the rest.  Having all the right wrenches, sockets and specialty tools really, NO - REALLY, makes these kinds of projects faster and easier.  As an added benefit, having the right tools significantly decreases the amount of time you need to spend fixing the walls since you’re much less likely to throw many less of the tools!!

Read this and still want to do it yourself?  As my Brother-in-Law would say, “The amount of satisfaction you’ll get out of it when your done is well worth the effort”.  And he should know! 

Good luck!