I'm thinking I am going to have to do U Joints and Ball Joints on my dad's 2001 F350 pretty soon. It's a pretty similar setup (ball joints, unit bearings, single piece axle shafts) as Jeep dana 30s - so it shouldn't be anything too new for me. The U joints are dry and binding up, and the ball joints appear to be seized. I can understand why the truck doesn't have greasable lower ball joints, but there's no excuse for it not having greaseable uppers and u joints.

I can get a good set of greaseable U Joints for $70 or so (no cheap stuff) and a set of 4 good ball joints for ~160 or so.

My concern is, this truck is super, super, super rusty. It only has 60K miles on it, but the bed has rusted through, there's no wheel well in the back right any more and the frame is just flaking away. Typical ford - they make good vehicles but Fords always rust worse than everything else on the road.

Took a look at some "guides" online and they all have 4 bolts that bolt from the inside (towards the frame) of the knuckle, that threads into the wheel bearing; the head of the bolt faces the frame and the threads are towards the outside of the truck.

That does not appear to be the case here. The wheel bearing bolts appear to be bolted from the outside, through the wheel bearing, then into the knuckle.

Any ideas on this? Or is this the way it's supposed to be assembled.

I'm assuming I can use some sort of trick with a socket extension braced against the leaf spring to pop the wheel bearing out.

This truck is so rusty, it may not actually be possible to get the wheel bearing out. It's not driven regularly at all, but I have been spraying it down with PB Blaster and Acetone/ATF to try and losen these surfaces up.

 

The hub assembly is held to the knuckle by studs that are screwed into the hub assembly and four nuts hold the studs to the knuckle on the inside of the knuckle. Those nuts are the only way to get the hub assembly off. I think if you look closer at the back side of the knuckle, you'll see the 4 nuts.

 

I have really good luck using a large three jaw puller once the nuts are off of the studs on the back of the hub. Remember to take your snap ring and the washers off of the drive shaft inside the hub.

 

Here is a good write up that I have used a couple times. Jason is also a member here.

2004 F250 Ball Joint Replacement