[Danlb0y]

Did my ball joints this week and it was a PITA. The uppers have 3 rivets each and took me way too much time. I did the left with an air chisel and it took about 3 hours. On the right I broke down and bought a dremel (which was in waaay over its head) and with the combination of cutting and using the air chisel I got the right one out in about an hour and a half. Once the rivet heads were cut I had to use an air hammer to pop the rivets out. It was the biggest challenge of my whole front end rebuild.

When researching this I saw some people say the lower ball joints were easy as long as you had a press and some say they were really tough. I think (although I could be wrong here) that it depends on whether you have a 2wd or 4wd. The 4wd, I believe, has the type of BJ's that can be pressed out. My 2wd had ones that were riveted in (4 rivets) and were stamped in between two pieces of metal unlike the tops that only went through 1 piece. On this type it is sooo much easier to go ahead and just replace the control arm.

The star bit for the lower control arm is a T55 and can be a tough one to loosen up.


My advice if you choose to tackle this is to make sure you have a tool capable of cutting those rivets somewhat quickly. If you can do that the job is not too bad.

Did you have to remove the arms from the truck? I have the tools. I just wonder how you did it on the truck (if you did)

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[Danlb0y]

Did my ball joints this week and it was a PITA. The uppers have 3 rivets each and took me way too much time. I did the left with an air chisel and it took about 3 hours. On the right I broke down and bought a dremel (which was in waaay over its head) and with the combination of cutting and using the air chisel I got the right one out in about an hour and a half. Once the rivet heads were cut I had to use an air hammer to pop the rivets out. It was the biggest challenge of my whole front end rebuild.

When researching this I saw some people say the lower ball joints were easy as long as you had a press and some say they were really tough. I think (although I could be wrong here) that it depends on whether you have a 2wd or 4wd. The 4wd, I believe, has the type of BJ's that can be pressed out. My 2wd had ones that were riveted in (4 rivets) and were stamped in between two pieces of metal unlike the tops that only went through 1 piece. On this type it is sooo much easier to go ahead and just replace the control arm.

The star bit for the lower control arm is a T55 and can be a tough one to loosen up.


My advice if you choose to tackle this is to make sure you have a tool capable of cutting those rivets somewhat quickly. If you can do that the job is not too bad.

Did you remove rivets with the arm off of the truck?

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[sporta]

Did you remove rivets with the arm off of the truck?

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When I did my '01's uppers we did it with the arms on the vehicle. Just be careful with your grinder and keep an eye open for the possibility of fire.

 

[Swat455]

You can also drill them out on the ride .I used a starter hole then went bigger . And dont recommend using cheap bits ..

 

[cburns221219]

My 03 SXT 4.7L is shaking pretty bad when i get above 60MPH. I just replaced the outter tir rod ends this weekend. Thinking i need to do the control arms too in order to stop the shaking. Any thoughts from the forum??

 

[averageDIY]

Thanks but I still don't know what needs to be replaced and what doesn't. I have $187 and some change with nothing but the lower ball joints replaced.

Detroit Axle - No shipping. Google Search Detroit Axle Coupon codes (As a test I tried this code: detroitaxlefb and it worked. see if there any codes for 15%, 20%, 25%)
I have outer tie rods on my Durango. Their upper ball joints are solid.
or
Rock Auto - Pay for shipping but get all the parts from the same warehouse, will only have to pay for shipping once

MevoTech -- Has some good quality parts (This comment will get people going crazy wait for it! lol) -- MevoTech parts are just as good as Moog, if not better
I have upper and lower ball joints from MevoTech on my Durango.

 

[Chase300]

Yes, MevoTech makes good quality parts...at least with their Premium line or TTX line.

Old thread BTW.