Hello,

Been a while. But now the time has come to replace the lower ball joints on my 2000 XP (5.4l, 4wd, EB).

I've got everything undone, except the torsion bars. I got the tensioner screws and brackets out. But darned if the things will budge. I've been putting penetrating oil on them for days, and banging on 'em with a small sledge - no move. I put a soldering torch to one - no move.

The instructions in the Haynes speak of simply sliding them out of the lower control arm, forward, until they clear the cross member. Very funny.

Since I have to toss the whole control arm with the integrated ball joint, I'm thinking of taking a sawzall and cutting the section where the torsion bar goes in. But before I do that - does anyone have any good tricks to get these things out?

Thanks.

 

You don't have to do any of that to replace the lower ball joints. The uppers are made into the control arms but the lowers are pressed in. No need to remove the torsion bars. The shock will keep the arm in place.

 

^^^+1. Just make sure it's a good tight fit. I had to get an oversized one for the driver side on mine...

 

Thank you, gentlemen, for confirming this. In the meantime I did some research and came to the same conclusion and have gone out and bought the ball joints and borrowed the press kit. Always good to have independent confirmation that what you think is ok really is.

And, at least with the torsion bar pressure released it's worry free.

 

I'll bet it's a lot more funny now that you know the ball joints press out.