My dad's hands are getting rather arthritic so he can't work on his stuff very well anymore, and he wanted me to figure out why his truck was wearing out the inside of the left tire. I took his truck, and I found that the lower ball joints were way too loose. The truck also pulled to the left under heavy braking, and it felt to me like the axle was rolling/shifting back. I ordered lower and upper ball joints, and new A arms. He wasn't very happy about me ordering parts that we didn't know were bad, but only because he's cheap.
It should have only been a few hours to just do the ball joints, but it ended up taking me 8-10 hours. The A-arms were a pain to remove, and the new ones were a little wider which made them extremely difficult to install. It's probably somewhere between a sand and a straw badge by my estimation.
0looseBallJoint.gif
A short video of how bad he let the ball joints get.
1removingTieRodEnd.jpg
To remove the tie rod ends get a ~6 foot bar, and stand on it while hammering on the side of the hole it goes through.
2looseningUpperBallJoint.jpg
To loosen the upper ball joint stand on the bar whiile hammering on the axle side of the C knuckle.
3looseningStubbornLowerBallJoint.jpg
This lower joint was supper stubbon, so I had to put pointy end of the bar in the space in between the knuckle and the housing. Then I beat on it with a short handled sledge hammer.
4ballJointToolRemoval.jpg
These ball and u-joint removal tools are excellent. I hammered out a lot of ball joints and u-joints before discovering this miracle tool.
5ballJointToolInstall.jpg
Installing just requires using the spacers to push the joint in instead out out.
6newJointsInstalled.jpg
Both new ball joints installed.
7driversSideBallJointsInstalled.jpg
The knuckle installed on the truck.
8oldAndNewAArms.jpg
The new A arms were a tad thicker, which made them extremely hard to get the bolt holes lined up.
9driverAArmsInstalled.jpg
After lots of stuggling I managed to get them in.
10nutPinAndWasher.jpg
For this style of locking nuts they use a little pin to hold a keyed washer in place.
11nutAndSpannerSocket.jpg
You'll need one of these 4 cogged spanner sockets to remove and install the nuts.
12nutPinLocation.jpg
After torquing the first nut(2 pictures down) locate the pin. Then rotate it to the nearest hole for the washer.
13washerOnPin.jpg
I always back the first nut off a 1/4 turn, and then tighten until the pin lines up with a hole.
14torquingSpannerNut.jpg
For torquing the first nut they generally require 75-90ft-lbs of torque, and then you back them off a 1/8 to 1/4 turn for the bearing preload.
15usingJackToTightenTireRod.jpg
If the tie rod bolt spins when you try to tighten it, you can use a jack to add a little pressure to the taper, and then tighten it.
16driverSideAllDone.jpg
The drivers side all reassembled.
17failedAArmBushing.jpg
I found the cause of the truck pulling to the left during braking. The bushings on the upper right A arm were loose enough that they both just fell out.
Someone flagged this submission as not complete. BBV price: 1 Note: Hi Peter, this looks like a submission for points which should be posted at https://permies.com/wiki/pep-badge-oddball. ; This thread is for asking for the Sand Badge when you have earned 5 points.
