Hey, Im thinking about replacing my upper and lower ball joints. Is this hard? I'm just tring to save a few bucks, but it is not worth it if I screw something else up. Thanks for you help!

 

You got to have the tools to do it. I would say if you have not done this before take it to a Technician.

 

yeah I think auto zone loans the tools for free. They loaned me the bearing puller. I would need to check to make sure. Does anyone know if there is a step by step instructions on how to do this.

 

If you do it yourself you, WILL save more than a couple of bucks!
Make sure you find/buy good ones though,after all the work of installing ball joints myself 2yrs ago, the blasted rubber boots on ball joints are currently & prematurely erroding before my eyes!

 

I did mine a couple of months ago. The only special tool I needed and had was a pickle fork. If the joints have never been replaced they may be riveted in and will have to be drilled out. The replacements should bolt in. My driver's side came out easy. Passenger side let me beat on it for about 20min. before breaking loose. You'll probably need to have it realigned after.

 

-I find using a grinder on the rivet heads much faster than digging out the bits.


-I too had the passenger side be much more of a headache.

 

can I just go for the ball joints or do I need to take off the hub and all that stuff in front? These things look prety easy to get to. . . but when I go watch the video on the net, they all have everything torn apart.

 

I got the tools from autozone for free. Took my buddy and I about 2 hours. I left the hub on. The hub cost me like $38/side.

I am not very good with cars, but my buddy is good for an amateur.

 

i did it myself with my buddies. took maybe two hours! it was very easy and really worth it. i have a 90 lifted k5 and it has alot less play in the steering wheel now. im not too sure what the name of it is but right above your tire on the drivers side theres the bar that connects to your steering column and makes your truck steer. make sure when you reattach that you center your steering wheel. i didnt and when i got it all back together i could only make left hand turns lol you will want a reallignment after though

 

did you even do a search on the subject?

seriously, it took 6 seconds to do, and i found this thread. very good, very detailed (a lot of pic's, for those that need 'em).