1989 jimmy 4x4 ball joints

[tallcanadian]

i've never replaced ball joints in a jimmy before. could i get some advice what to do? i have what seems to be wandering steering. i'm told that my ball joints are somewhat tight. i do have one bad upper ball joint so i want to replace both upper and lower. any advice would be appreciated.

[loca247]

I had the ball joints on my 2000 Jimmy replaced in May 2007. The right upper and lower were bad. The mechanic said that all four needed to be replaced so they would wear evenly and once he's in there he might as well do it all at once. They were the original ball joints on the Jimmy (115,000 miles).

[tallcanadian]

my jimmy has 123,000 kms. (approx 77,000 miles) the ball joints are original as well.

[jdmccright]

The top ball joints are riveted to the control arm, so you will need to either drill the heads out, grind them off, or use a air-powered chisel. Grinding does the least damage to the arm since you can see how far to go then stop and punch the middle out with a centerpunch. A Haynes or Chilton's repair manual helps lay out the steps. If not, AutoZone.com has the nearly identical repair guides online, pics and everything. Unsure how the bottom ones are held in. Here is the AutoZone link:

http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us...rInfoPages.htm

Good luck!

[jdmccright]

The top ball joints are riveted to the control arm, so you will need to either drill the heads out, grind them off, or use a air-powered chisel. Grinding does the least damage to the arm since you can see how far to go then stop and punch the middle out with a centerpunch. A Haynes or Chilton's repair manual helps lay out the steps. If not, AutoZone.com has the nearly identical repair guides online, pics and everything. Unsure how the bottom ones are held in. Here is the AutoZone link:

http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us...rInfoPages.htm

Good luck!