how do you inspect the ball joints on 4x4 vehicles? i jacked up the truck and tried to wiggle the tire and wheel up and down to check for play and it wont budge. i even tried a large crow bar on the bottom of the tire for more leverage but it wont move. almost every time i drive over a bump i hear a clunk that sounds like a bad ball joint.

 

could be a shock or swaybar also. Even a bad body mount

 

check your hood bolts

 

i am such a noob lol i jacked it up at the wrong spot i jacked it up at the cross member so the torsion bar put pressure on the ball joints. once i jacked it up at the lower A arm i checked them and my lower is bad, worse then i thought (dangerously bad) how bad is it to replace the lower and upper for that matter since im there? i already replaced the hubs on both sides so i tore into it before

 

upper pretty easy, lower a bit more invlved but not to hard just time consuming

 

i got everything off now im facing the rivets any suggestions on how i can remove them? i dont have air compressor to use pneumatic chisel like the guy in the video did

 

Don't need air tools. I always use a hand held grinder to grind the rivet heads off flush with the ball joint. Take a punch and pound the rivets out. 10 minutes or less per joint. If you're doing both joints, remove the steering knuckle, much easier.

 

could i use a dremel as a grinder? yes i got the knuckle off alot easier more room. the upper balljoint looks alot better then lower in face its still pretty firm would you recommend i still replace it?

 

hand chisel and a hammer

 

Using a chisel of any kind, you run the risk of deforming the control arm. Dremel is fine, should have her done by June I bought one of these for this exact job. Figured it would last 6 months, that was 5 years ago: 4-1/2" Angle Grinder Grind off all 8 rivet heads in under 10 minutes.