After all the work to get my truck ready to actually be able to align, the guy at the shop just calls me and says that my Pass side lower BJ has play in it and should be replaced. Friggen great. I did what any rational minded guy did- told him to just align it and not touch the BJ. Those are labor intensive, and I would never pay a shop to do it, plus I want to check it myself and see how much play there is. I would have expected a BJ to go longer then 90k miles on a well taken care of truck, but what can you do?

I have replaced ball joints on a D44 before. I didn't have fun... Of course, it was a 35 year old truck... I do know that I was VERY impressed with the Moog M2 chassis parts, and will use them again.

Ah well, guess I can get the rotors turned and repack the bearings too... There goes another upcoming Saturday down the tubes.

 

sorry to hear that dude! what else do you do on Saturdays? I often just sit around and watch College ball and Busch/Truck racing. We now have 2 tv's in the garage so spending time outside in the garage is quite fun for the most part I look forward to big weekend projects now. This past weekend we had some great weather. I hope we have good weather this coming weekend if my lift kit comes in

 

Is your truck 4x4? I replaced the ball joints on my 95 with the D44 front end. That was fun. 210K miles on the original ones. They were gettin pretty bad. It took a while to get them replaced since it had never been apart. I went ahead and did all the axle joints too while I was at it.

 

I am gonna take the knuckles off and have the BJs pressed out/in at a machine shop. It's worth $40 to me to not wrestle with getting those out.

Mine is a 4x4. I have even done BJs on a D44 before, and a few on a Chevy ten bolt front axle. I can probably get the hubs, rotors, spindles and tie rod end off with my eyes closed.

 

They're fun to do. I picked up a Mac tools ball joint press off ebay for $80 a couple months ago. So far it's only been used for U-joints, but I'm waiting to use it on ball joints.

 

I took the knuckles off of mine to my neighbors who luckily had a press. Thats the only way to do it buddy. Heat er up and press it out.

 

I did mine not to long ago it ain't no fun.I also would suggest investing in the ball joint tool.As long as you have a impact gun (electric or air)or a soildly mount vise and big 1/2 drive ratchet it will make quick work at getting them out of the knuckle.I would also look into doing the wheel joints at the same time.It would suck to have take it part twice.

 

my grandpa said that in a pinch, you can use a sledge hammer. any input? other than be accurate

 

It all depends on how long them babies have been in there. I think the ones on my truck were original..... so 210,000 miles is a lot. I could see getting them out if they were maybe 40 or 50,000 miles old, but mine had no chance lol.

 

89k miles on mine... Everything on the truck has been pretty easy so far.

 

I hope I never buy a truck where some old-timer used a sledge hammer to knock out the ball joints.

Keep an eye on e-bay. Or you can rent one for free from Autozone. The job isn't that hard to do.

Heat is a REALLY bad idea. Torching the knuckle removes the temper in the steel, making it weaker.

 

Just so I understand.. Why would I not pay a machine shop 10/15 ea to Remove/Replace ball joints? Takes em 10 minutes and even if I do all 4, that's only $60.

I have had bad experiences with stubborn chassis parts... Now I just pay someone with a 5000lb press to do it.

 

I paid $60 per side to have mine pressed in/out before I bought my press. If you can get yours done for half, it may well save you the aggravation.

 

WOW! Man, I don't miss California! That is expensive. I don't blame you there.

Between San Jose, the Bay Area and San Diego over about 6 years, I had my fill.