Ball joints

[Jimmy98]

Has anyone changed there own ball joints? If so was it difficult, time consuming, expensive, etc.?

[herefordman]

Its not expensive but is a lot of work to do by hand, and totally not worth it. A garage with air tools and a hoist can do this really quick and easy and won't be all that expensive.

[semisneak]

I changed all four ball joints today. I t cost about 100 bucks to do it myself. You will need a 36 mm deep well socket to take off your hub nut (15 bucks). The origanal ball joints are rivoted in and it is a pain to get them out. The top ones are easy but the bottom ones are a pain. drill down thru the rivets with a 1/8 bit , then use a 5/16 to drill about half way thru them. Then knock them out with a punch. When putting in the new ball joints make sure you can get a grease gun on the grease zerts especially on the bottom ball joints. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO TAKE THE AXLE ALL THE WAY OUT! The manual says to take the axle out. After alot of wasted time and frustration I realized the axle did not need to come out. It is harder to get the the rivets drilled out with the axle in but it is easier then taking the axle out. You will need a pickle fork to seperate the upper ball joints. After drilling out the lower rivets you just knock out the ball joint with a hammer. The new ball joints will be bolted in so they will go together quickly. I see this is an old post but i hope this helps somebody.