Dad is needing to replace the passenger side ball joints on his 2001 f-350 4x4. Does anyone have experience with this? How much trouble is it going to be? And what all is going to have to come off? Thanks in advance.

 

TONS of experience.

Are they this bad? Both sides did this:
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I did my first ones ever on this truck. Watched a quick video on you tube to be some what prepared, and really wasnt bad. Its time consuming because how far you have to pull it all down, but not really hard.

If you gotta do one, might as well do the pair.

 

its really not bad at all, like said above just time consuming, you gotta pull all the brake stuff off and rotors, wheel bearings and then the axle shaft has to come out then you can undo the upper and lower ball joint nuts, and pop the tie rod end out, take your yoke and then press the ball joints out with a ball joint press and then press the new ones in and its just reverse of how you took it apart! there was a GREAT video on youtube that i watched ill try to find it for you.

 

here ya go!

 

What needs to be removed:

Wheel
Brake caliper
Unit hub/bearing assembly
Axle shaft
Tie rod end

For the most part, a 21mm deep socket, 8mm socket, snap ring pliers, and side cutters are all you need to get this far.....

To remove the knuckle, use an 1-1/4" socket for the top nut (after removing the cotter pin) and a 1-5/16" socket for the lower nut.

A ball joint press set is going to be your best friend during the removal/installation process. I did countless sets of ball joints up until about fourteen years ago with the old hammer-and-cuss-after-smashing-fingers action......

All said and done, labor time for all four (there's ZERO sense in doing just one or just one side) is 4.1 hours or so for the set. After a bit of practice and good air tools, it turns into a 2 hour job tops including u-joints.

Be sure to exercise the axle u-joints and check them too....don't put it back together with a seized or sticky one or you'll be right back in there again in short order.

 

Thanks a million! We finally got around to it and thanks to you guys it was relitively painless. Your help was invaluable. Now there was one small hickup, however. Apparently we didnt get the clip for the lockout hub in just right and we lost the hub going down the road. Since it cant be found any ideas on a replacement?