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Originally Posted by tangofox007
The problem with the Autozone press (and others like it) is that it applies pressure to the top of the joint, rather than at the flange at the base. It is possible to damage the joint by installing it in that manner. Did you check the ball joint for smooth operation after it was pressed in but prior reinstalling the knuckle to the control arm?
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I read this whole discussion, and I did test the ball joint for smooth operation after pressing it in. It's working fine, and the car drives and steers fine too, with two new ball joints pressed in this way. Looking at the construction of the Lemfoerder ball joint, I don't think that it's really likely that it'd get damaged by applying pressure evently to the top of the ball joint lip, unless the ball joint body is defective. I'm sure one can screw this up -- where there's a will, there's a way -- but when done right, the pressure is distributed evenly and propagates to the base of the joint.