Both of the lower ball joints on my SD needed replacement, in a bad way, but I kept postponing it over the perceived lack of proper tools. Fast-approaching fatherhood has forced me to act though. According to the FSM, several special tools are needed for the job. After doing some background reading, it became obvious to me that it's perfectly possible to replace a lower balljoint with a much more pedestrian set of tools, but I still found the choice of tools to be harder than I thought.

I followed the instructions in the FSM, combined with the advice from http://www.diymbrepair.com/FrontSuspension/balljoint/ and http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=142212. I rented a ball joint press from Autozone, OEM#27023, and it worked for me nicely. I did run into problems separating the ball joint stem from the lower control arm. Per FSM, one needs the tool 116 589 09 33 00 to do this properly (and 116 589 13 33 00 for the upper ball joint). I'm averse to buying expensive single-purpose tools, so I went with a pickle fork and a three-jaw puller (to backup the fork), both procured from Harbor Freight. I harbor absolutely no illusions about the quality Harbor Freight tools, but I figured that it's hard to really screw up a pickle fork. I was wrong.

Attached see a picture of said pickle fork following an aborted ball joint separation attempt. In the battle between the fork and the steering knuckle/LCA the fork lost badly, and the LCA didn't give up any ground. The 4" three-jaw puller fared even worse. I didn't want to use the pickle fork on the upper ball joint, as I don't want to replace my UCA just yet, so I wanted to use a puller instead to preserve the boot. El cheapo HF puller managed to get that done, not gracefully, but whatever. When I tried to use it on the lower ball joint, however, one of the bolts in the puller snapped long before there was any significant tension. Not the right tool for the job.

I don't know whether my case is unique or not, but the LCA was gripping that tapered ball joint stem HARD. No amount of (ill-advised) knocking on the steering knuckle or applying the upward force from a jack under LCA helped. I'm not sure whether a sturdier pickle fork would have helped here. Eventually I gave up and ran to Sears to find something better -- and did. The 7-ton two-jaw Craftsman puller is the right tool for this job (the 5-ton puller may have worked too, but it's hard to be sure -- I did have to put it through considerable stress. When the ball joint did pop, it was with much force -- be sure your foot in not in the vicinity if you try this). One can use it to separate both upper and lower ball joints (and a tie rod end, which I ended up doing "while in there"), see attached pictures. It fits quite nicely, without damaging boots, and has enough strength. In my opinion it's superior to the pickle fork approach.

So basically the toolset for doing a ball joint job would be
1) Ball joint press, e.g. the one from Autozone
2) Sturdy two-jaw puller, similar to the one in the attached pictures
3) Sledgehammer (I harbored illusions about using a plain hammer to knock the old ball joint out, and was wrong about that too)
4) Good long breaker bar, to operate the press (no need for any impact tools here) and undo various fasteners. I truly believe that, dollar-for-dollar, my 3' breaker bar is one of the best tools I ever got.

With those tools, it took me just over 2 hours to do the second ball joint, and that was with picture-taking and a beer break. BTW, I didn't find that freezing a ball joint makes it any easier to press it in -- if anything, the non-frozen joint seemed easier for me to press in.

Attached Thumbnails