Hi
I have a 2000 B4000 4WD with torsion bar suspension and need to change out the front lower ball joints. From what I understand it is recomended that the torsion bar and lower control arm be taken out and then the joints are changed with the lower control arm out of the vehicle. I would really like to avoid that and change them w/o removing the lower control arm or messing with the torsion bar. Can it be done that way? If so what do you need to watch out for? If anyone has done it that way before, I would like to know how it worked out and what you ran into.
Thanks!

 

take off the c-clip holding it on and the spindle and then get a BFH and knock it out....going back in is the hard part...lol....i got a piece of pip that fits around the BJ and hits on the metal part of it...then i set that on top of my floor jack and got it so the BJ was going in straight and then beat the hell out of the LCA until it went in....occasionally jacking the jack up more to make sure it goes in straight....

 

I seen how they do it, but I didn't want to do my control arms either. I not sure what yours looks like being 4WD but I did the lower ball joints on my 89 Mustang. It looked simple, I removed the struts first and it took a while heating the castle nut on the ball joint with a paint stripper gun to remove the spindle. . I placed the jack stand right under the well for the coil spring in the lower control arm. I heated up the control arm for about ten minutes and the I got the BFH ( Big F-ing Hammer) out and started pounding on the shaft of the ball joint. It did take a allot of whacks but they did come out. I asked a buddy of mine for his ball joint press to get the new ones back in. It was a chore but its done now.

 

where did it tell you to take the whole control arm off? thats retarded.

Getting it out is the easy part, take the snap ring off and beat it out.. Going back in you can be a hot shot like Jacob and try to hammer it in while supporting the LCA with a floor jack.. or you can rent a ball joint press and put it back in the 'more' correct way.. I think the ones from Advance Auto and Orilleys are better equipped, I had to weld some extra metal onto the one from Autozone for it to work..

 

I was just searching "ball joint removal" on Google and found some guy with videos of him doing it to a front drive import. He use the a small vice to remove it and install the new one. It didn't look safe but it worked.

 

Advance auto parts has a loaner tool program. Thats what I used. It's a ball joint press. You pay for the kit and when you're done using it you get all of your money back.

 

get the proper tool it makes things a whole lot easy you could prob have em changed with in a hour with the proper tools

 

if you get the proper tool you will need the additional special cup that will hold the ball joint without ripping the boot.

as t5cents said. put it in a pipe or in the cup and set it on the floor jack, jack it up into the control arm while tapping down on the LCA...easiest way hands down