Lower Ball Joints

[FordandPolaris]

Alright so this is a question regarding my dad's 04 Expy 4x4. We tried to press out his lower ball joints today, and we could not get the cup from the press to sit squarely against the arm. It keeps coming at an angle and therefore does not pull evenly downward to press out the ball joint. I should have taken a picture but I forgot.

My question is has anyone actually done the procedure, and if so have you run into similar trouble? We tried everything from beating it with a hammer to switching ball joint presses and we could not get it out. As of now our plan going forward is to replace the entire lower control arm, but we are not going to do that for a couple of weeks, so if anyone has ideas, they would be much appreciated.

Zach

 

[FordandPolaris]

Has anyone replaced the lower ball joints with success on their 2nd gens?

 

[GAINMOB]

i need to do mine

 

[FordandPolaris]

Well best of luck to you sir, they are a lot easier on the older trucks with the non-aluminum a-arms.

 

[mindgame]

Sorry... Never did this yet.. I just buy the entire assembly..

 

[FordandPolaris]

Yeah that is the only thing we can figure to do. By the time we do end up beating out the old ball joint, we will more than likely have damaged the aluminum a-arm anyways. On a side note, on my truck there are slots for the upper control arms to slide in so that camber can be adjusted. That does not appear to be the case with the 2nd gens, how do they align the wheels without camber adjustments? Or am I missing something?

 

[mindgame]

I believe the adjustment is made at the lower control arms.

 

[Moemantha]

Take the arms off get a shop to do it. You may have to heat the control arm (slighty) to get the balljoint to move.

 

[FordandPolaris]

Nah having a shop do it is for the weak... haha just kidding, but we are just going to replace the arms. We ordered one through O'Reilly and just by the looks of it, this is a known problem. There is a lot more metal between the ball joint and the edge on the new part than there is on the OEM part in the truck. Probably going to do this project in a couple of weekends.

 

[Moemantha]

Oh ok. I know the rears on mine are $700 each-dealer. Fronts are cheaper?