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equin · 12-11-2006, 02:33 AM

So far so good, but the worst was yet to come. For us, the upper ball joint was much more difficult than the lower one. We first loosened and removed the castle nut on the threaded stud of the upper ball joint connecting it to the upper control arm (after removing the cotter pin of course). Once removed, we expected the threaded stud to easily separate from the upper control arm, but that was not the case. We hammered the top of the stud to no avail (ruining the stud in the process, but since we were replacing it we didn't care). We tried to fit the bigger two jaw puller in there, but the jaws were too narrow and not long enough. We tried a three jaw puller, but it just wasn't grasping the upper control arm well enough. What finally worked was hammering a tie rod fork through the boot portion of the ball joint right underneath the upper control arm (note - this will destroy the boot) and, while using that fork as leverage, pounding the top of the threaded stud with a small sledge. This worked great. Unfortunately, we forgot to take pics of this process. - Update, we got new pics of the passenger side -

Here are some pics of the process when we did the passenger side the following day. Note, however, the tips given in the subsequent posts in this thread from others who've found easier ways to do it. I will say, though, that this second time around it was pretty easy to pop it out of the upper control arm. Anyway, here are pics of us "pickle forking" it out of there. Just remember to also hammer the top of the ball joint stud while you're applying downward force on the pickle fork:

Here's Keith's son, Wade, probably the smartest 10-year old I ever met, taking out some elementary school stress by wacking on the pickle fork in order to get it good and snug in there before applying the downward force and hammering on the top of the stud:

Once the pickle fork was good and snug on there, we applied downward force on it while hammering the top of the ball joint stud. It easily popped right out, but like I mentioned above, please note the other posts below on other methods of popping it out:

After separating it from the upper control arm, next came the difficult task of separating it from the knuckle/spindle. There was supposed to be a boot wire that needed to be removed in order to remove the boot, but to our surprise we didn't find one. After finding the snap ring that helps hold the ball joint to the knuckle/spindle, we struggled for a bit to get it off. We used snap ring expanding pliers and a flathead screwdriver to finally pry it out of the driver side. Here's a pic of us also using what looks like a dental hook instrument that Keith found in his tool box that helped remove it from the passenger side:

Afterward came the fun part of pressing it out. We first used a three jaw puller and a 36 mm socket that fit over the ball joint and threaded stud:

But we discovered that the pointy, threaded stud of the puller went right through the top of the square 1/2" hole of the 36 mm socket. Tony came up with the bright idea of putting a bolt through the square hole to keep the pointed end of the puller's stud from going through it. Since the new lower ball joint came with four new lower ball joint bolts, we decided to use one of those old bolts for this purpose. Here's a pic of the passenger side that shows what I'm talking about:

It worked like a charm on the driver side, but when we tried it on the passenger side the next day, we discovered the pointy end of the 3-jaw puller stud was no longer pointy, but was instead dull and almost flat. This caused the stud to slip off the head of the bolt. So Keith came up with the idea of using a 1/2" to 3/8" drive adapter for the passenger side:

After threading the puller for awhile, we finally observed the ball joint slowly but surely being pressed out of the knuckle/spindle:

Here's the knuckle/spindle with the upper ball joint finally removed:

Getting ready to place the new upper ball joint into the passenger side knuckle:

To press the new one in, we placed the three jaw puller upside down and used a steel plate underneath the new ball joint to keep the pointy, threaded stud from busting a hole through it. We also used one of the steel cups supplied in a Harbor Freight ball joint press so that the jaws of the puller could have something to grasp onto. The force of the puller managed to bend the plate and almost break through it, so we simply used another one on top of it:

And here's a pic of the passenger side with two steel plates under the ball joint:

At one point while doing the passenger side, we decided to use a big heavy wrench in place of the steel plates underneath the ball joint to help press it in more evenly:

This is what the new ball joint looks like once pressed into the knuckle/spindle and with the new snap ring in place. Note how the boot is still not on it:

The snap ring was kind of tricky to get on. It's pretty stiff. We first slipped it on over the top. The snap ring expander pliers we had couldn't open the snap ring enough to slip it all the way on. So while I expanded it as much as I could, Keith took some big pliers and just snapped the other end of the snap ring onto the edge of the knuckle:

The new upper ball joint comes supplied with two kinds of grease - one that you fill the boot with and another kind that you place on the bottom lip of the boot. The kind that you fill the boot with was whiter than the other kind and came in a blue bag. The kind that you apply on the bottom lip of the boot was slightly more yellowish and came in a clear bag.

Here's a pic of the boot with the supplied boot grease:

Here's a pic of the boot filled with the grease. We used every last bit of the grease:

Once we filled the boot with grease and applied the other grease on the bottom lip of it, we placed it over the ball joint's threaded stud:

We then secured the boot with new wire supplied with the upper ball joint kit. The instructions said to wrap the wire around the bottom groove of the boot two turns and then to twist the ends together to tighten it. After twisting and tightening the wire, we cut the excess off and tried to bend the twisted part downward so that it wouldn't hit or cut the rubber boot:

Afterward, we guided the ball joint's threaded stud through the upper control arm hole and tightened it down with the new castle nut supplied with the ball joint kit. We put a new cotter pin on (also supplied with the kit), tightened everything down with torque (including the four lower ball joint bolts after putting loctite on them), put the tire back on and tightened the lug nuts.

I'm sure there are a few things I've left out, and I'm doubly sure there are a few tips and tricks that would've helped make the process a little easier. The whole process took us awhile since it was our first time. Hope our experience helps any other folk wanting to tackle this job on their own.

(Edited for new pics)

12-11-2006, 02:33 AM	#2
equin Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: North Texas Posts: 2,004	So far so good, but the worst was yet to come. For us, the upper ball joint was much more difficult than the lower one. We first loosened and removed the castle nut on the threaded stud of the upper ball joint connecting it to the upper control arm (after removing the cotter pin of course). Once removed, we expected the threaded stud to easily separate from the upper control arm, but that was not the case. We hammered the top of the stud to no avail (ruining the stud in the process, but since we were replacing it we didn't care). We tried to fit the bigger two jaw puller in there, but the jaws were too narrow and not long enough. We tried a three jaw puller, but it just wasn't grasping the upper control arm well enough. What finally worked was hammering a tie rod fork through the boot portion of the ball joint right underneath the upper control arm (note - this will destroy the boot) and, while using that fork as leverage, pounding the top of the threaded stud with a small sledge. This worked great. Unfortunately, we forgot to take pics of this process. - Update, we got new pics of the passenger side - Here are some pics of the process when we did the passenger side the following day. Note, however, the tips given in the subsequent posts in this thread from others who've found easier ways to do it. I will say, though, that this second time around it was pretty easy to pop it out of the upper control arm. Anyway, here are pics of us "pickle forking" it out of there. Just remember to also hammer the top of the ball joint stud while you're applying downward force on the pickle fork: Here's Keith's son, Wade, probably the smartest 10-year old I ever met, taking out some elementary school stress by wacking on the pickle fork in order to get it good and snug in there before applying the downward force and hammering on the top of the stud: Once the pickle fork was good and snug on there, we applied downward force on it while hammering the top of the ball joint stud. It easily popped right out, but like I mentioned above, please note the other posts below on other methods of popping it out: After separating it from the upper control arm, next came the difficult task of separating it from the knuckle/spindle. There was supposed to be a boot wire that needed to be removed in order to remove the boot, but to our surprise we didn't find one. After finding the snap ring that helps hold the ball joint to the knuckle/spindle, we struggled for a bit to get it off. We used snap ring expanding pliers and a flathead screwdriver to finally pry it out of the driver side. Here's a pic of us also using what looks like a dental hook instrument that Keith found in his tool box that helped remove it from the passenger side: Afterward came the fun part of pressing it out. We first used a three jaw puller and a 36 mm socket that fit over the ball joint and threaded stud: But we discovered that the pointy, threaded stud of the puller went right through the top of the square 1/2" hole of the 36 mm socket. Tony came up with the bright idea of putting a bolt through the square hole to keep the pointed end of the puller's stud from going through it. Since the new lower ball joint came with four new lower ball joint bolts, we decided to use one of those old bolts for this purpose. Here's a pic of the passenger side that shows what I'm talking about: It worked like a charm on the driver side, but when we tried it on the passenger side the next day, we discovered the pointy end of the 3-jaw puller stud was no longer pointy, but was instead dull and almost flat. This caused the stud to slip off the head of the bolt. So Keith came up with the idea of using a 1/2" to 3/8" drive adapter for the passenger side: After threading the puller for awhile, we finally observed the ball joint slowly but surely being pressed out of the knuckle/spindle: Here's the knuckle/spindle with the upper ball joint finally removed: Getting ready to place the new upper ball joint into the passenger side knuckle: To press the new one in, we placed the three jaw puller upside down and used a steel plate underneath the new ball joint to keep the pointy, threaded stud from busting a hole through it. We also used one of the steel cups supplied in a Harbor Freight ball joint press so that the jaws of the puller could have something to grasp onto. The force of the puller managed to bend the plate and almost break through it, so we simply used another one on top of it: And here's a pic of the passenger side with two steel plates under the ball joint: At one point while doing the passenger side, we decided to use a big heavy wrench in place of the steel plates underneath the ball joint to help press it in more evenly: This is what the new ball joint looks like once pressed into the knuckle/spindle and with the new snap ring in place. Note how the boot is still not on it: The snap ring was kind of tricky to get on. It's pretty stiff. We first slipped it on over the top. The snap ring expander pliers we had couldn't open the snap ring enough to slip it all the way on. So while I expanded it as much as I could, Keith took some big pliers and just snapped the other end of the snap ring onto the edge of the knuckle: The new upper ball joint comes supplied with two kinds of grease - one that you fill the boot with and another kind that you place on the bottom lip of the boot. The kind that you fill the boot with was whiter than the other kind and came in a blue bag. The kind that you apply on the bottom lip of the boot was slightly more yellowish and came in a clear bag. Here's a pic of the boot with the supplied boot grease: Here's a pic of the boot filled with the grease. We used every last bit of the grease: Once we filled the boot with grease and applied the other grease on the bottom lip of it, we placed it over the ball joint's threaded stud: We then secured the boot with new wire supplied with the upper ball joint kit. The instructions said to wrap the wire around the bottom groove of the boot two turns and then to twist the ends together to tighten it. After twisting and tightening the wire, we cut the excess off and tried to bend the twisted part downward so that it wouldn't hit or cut the rubber boot: Afterward, we guided the ball joint's threaded stud through the upper control arm hole and tightened it down with the new castle nut supplied with the ball joint kit. We put a new cotter pin on (also supplied with the kit), tightened everything down with torque (including the four lower ball joint bolts after putting loctite on them), put the tire back on and tightened the lug nuts. I'm sure there are a few things I've left out, and I'm doubly sure there are a few tips and tricks that would've helped make the process a little easier. The whole process took us awhile since it was our first time. Hope our experience helps any other folk wanting to tackle this job on their own. (Edited for new pics) __________________ Ed Q. 03 Tacoma Ex Cab 3.4L TRD 4x4 Last edited by equin; 12-14-2006 at 12:46 AM.