Replaced my lower front ball joints tonite on my 98 F150 4x4.
I loosened the lugs and axle hub nuts , jacked it up on stands, then did one side at a time . Removed the calipers, disc, shield, tie rod end nut , upper ball join nut, and lower ball joint nut.
I soaked all three connections with WD40 for 20 minutes before work.
Then I began by smacking the side of the yoke at each joint connection with a ball peen hammer. The upper ball join and tie rod ends were easy and popped right off. The lower ball joints were a ***** - you know !!
After hammering brutally on the yoke casting I decided to put the floor jack under the nut of the lower ball join and slightly jack up the suspension to put some pressure on the loosened lower nut .
That upward pressure and more smacking with the hammer to side of casting at connection popped each lower join loose . Voilla !!
Then I used a ball joint c-clamp shaped press tool that I rented from Kragen auto . It's a very nice tool with plenty of press fittings .
The tool needed plenty of torqueing to get the lower joints to finally pop and begin to press out. ( after removing the c-clips )
I then lighty hand sanded the holes clean and the outside machined surface of the new ball joints and caoted them with motor oil.
Using the Kargen pres tool I successfully pressed the new lower ball joints in and installed the new c-clips .
Replaced the yoke and torqued everything to specs . The motorecraft new ball joints also have a nice grease zirk fitting on the top for future lube. ( bought at Amazon )
Whole job took about 5 hours ..........
Good Luck

 

Here is a few tips that are helpful:

-While it is possible to break loose the joint from the knuckle by hitting it with a hammer.. if you get one that is really stuck you need a pickle fork (or pneumatic pickle fork and air hammer) to break it loose.

-There isnt really any need to remove the caliper or anything from the knuckle. Just break loose one ball joint at a time and push the knuckle/brake assembly away.

Other than that it sounds like you did a pretty good job, when I did my ball joints the first time I was a little imtimidated at first, but once I got one side done the other side took half the time.

 

Hi Bobby,
Yea, you're right , I should have used the pickle fork in my tool box.
But somehow with this economy - it felt good to smack the knuckle with a hammer repeatedly .......
But , where we disagree is not pulling the whole knuckle .
I like alot of room to do a good job - especially when the ball joint is as seized in place as this one was. Just takes a minute more to pull the whole knuckle and make life easy. Wire up the caliper and axle shaft well out of the way.