DIY: Lower Ball Joints

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

huntram03

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2012
Posts
327
Reaction score
27
Location
Cincinnati Oh
Ram Year
2008
Engine
6.7L CUMMINS
My truck is an 03 1500 4x4 with torsion bars and this is how I did my Lower ball joints. In my opinion this job is about a 7 out of 10 difficulty level.

Tools needed:
Ball Joint press that can be rented from a local Auto Parts store,
Ball Joint seperator
Hammer, I used a 5lb sledge
Basic set of wrenches and sockets (deep well and shallow) up to 1 1/16 standard and metric up to 22mm..
35mm socket for the half shaft nut. Also can be rented..
MAP gas torch
C-clamp
set of standard Allen wrenches

Thats all I can think of right now.. If I think of something else I will edit it in.

To start jack it up and support it on jack stands anywhere but on the lower A arm. Locate your torsion keys, you will see a bolt that keeps tension on your keys, count how many threads are visable and write it down. (if you want to keep your truck at the same height) Remove that bolt and key will sit down on the key way that the bolt was in. Put the Torsion Bar key remover on and lift up on the key untill you can remove that key way. Once it is loose remove torsion bar from lower A arm..

Remove wheels, brake caliper, caliper bracket and rotor. Then remove ABS sensor using a 3/16 (I think) Allen wrench and place it out of the way. Remove your shock, the bottom bolt of your stabilizer bar link, the bolt from your upper ball joint, tie rod, lower ball joint and half shaft. Get your ball joint Seperator and seperate the tie rod (Hint: unless you need to replace it use your torch and heat the BOTTOM where the bolt was and hit with a hammer it should seperate if not use the seperator and pound it in there to seperate it) and the upper ball joint, once it is seperated thread the bolt back onto the upper ball joint just a few threads will do. (that will be used to hold the spindle from falling later) I then used a few zipites and zipped the tie rod to the stabilizer arm to keep it out of the way.

Once you have seperated those the spindle should be able to move around. Now comes the fun part.. pound the seperator into the lower ball joint then use your torch and heat the hell out of the threads of the lower ball joint and the lower a arm. then use your hammer and hit up on the lower ball joint and it should seperate.. If not then hammer your seperator in again then heat more and repeat untill it seperates. Once it seperates remove the upper ball joint nut and remove the spindle. Now you have a free and clear shot to the lower ball joint. Get your Ball Joint Press and press out the old joint. Press it down to remove it. I then cleaned out and put a lil grease in the hole for ease of installation. Then press in the new joint. This is where I had the most issues..

The press that they had didnt have a big enough top plate to reinstall it completely so I had to do a lil rigging (not the safest way to do it but it got the job done) see pics.. Once you get it pressed back in, reinstall everything in reverse order and DOUBLE CHECK YOUR WORK!!! Make sure you tightened everything up if not you will know soon enough!!

Keep in mind this is how I did mine, everyone does it differently and some may have a quicker way to do it. The first side I did took about a total of 6 hours, the 2nd side took about 2hrs from start to finish.. Good luck and PM me if you have any questions.. Thanks for reading I think I covered it all if not please let me know..
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
huntram03

huntram03

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2012
Posts
327
Reaction score
27
Location
Cincinnati Oh
Ram Year
2008
Engine
6.7L CUMMINS
Here are the pics in no particular order
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0002.jpg
    IMG_0002.jpg
    86.4 KB · Views: 830
  • IMG_0003.jpg
    IMG_0003.jpg
    94.4 KB · Views: 271
  • IMG_0004.jpg
    IMG_0004.jpg
    93.7 KB · Views: 223
  • IMG_0005.jpg
    IMG_0005.jpg
    91.5 KB · Views: 11,372
  • IMG_0007.jpg
    IMG_0007.jpg
    89.6 KB · Views: 291
OP
OP
huntram03

huntram03

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2012
Posts
327
Reaction score
27
Location
Cincinnati Oh
Ram Year
2008
Engine
6.7L CUMMINS
The last on is the Torsion key remover that got off ebay from Rough Country for $80.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0008.jpg
    IMG_0008.jpg
    90 KB · Views: 7,570
  • IMG_0009.jpg
    IMG_0009.jpg
    88.3 KB · Views: 412
  • IMG_0010.jpg
    IMG_0010.jpg
    89.1 KB · Views: 577
  • IMG_0011.jpg
    IMG_0011.jpg
    92.7 KB · Views: 249
  • IMG_0018.jpg
    IMG_0018.jpg
    97.4 KB · Views: 245

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
194,925
Posts
2,864,173
Members
155,296
Latest member
VLG6963
Top