Lower Ball Joint Q- 1992 G2500 Full Size Panel Van 350 ci, auto OD

No, just support the lower a- arm and proceed with the joint replacement. Do not allow the arm to be supported by the shock.

And beg, borrow or steal a ball joint press and do the job right. Many parts houses have loaner tools now requiring only a refundable deposit.

Whitelightning

well i am thinking of a piece of wood under the ball joint with the jack and chains...and yeah support the a arm with more than just the shock is this acceptable?

Get (or rent) the ball joint press. It'll make it a 15 minute job. Serious. The job does not require wood OR a hammer.

Judging what happened last time you used the "jack, chains, and wood" method I'd recommend getting hold of a proper press tool. The balljoint will be useless if you can't grease it.

What is Wood under the ball joint going to do other then be in the way? Jack up under where the Spring is at. You won't need any chains as the Weight of the car is keeping it compressed and you still have the shocked hooked up anyway for backup, though it really doesn't matter. Pull the Nut, Hit the knuckle with a hammer to bust it loose from the knuckle, sometimes a Pry Bar pulling UP on the upper control arm will help. Left it all up and off the ball joint and move everything to the side. Using Bailing wire to tie onto and hold everything off to the side to keep it out of the way makes things a little easier. Use a hammer and knock the old ball joint out. Again the weight of the car is holding the lower control arm in place, it's not going to move, nor is the spring going to fly out when your smacking the ball joint out with a hammer. It's fast and easy most of the time. To put the NEW one on though, your going to need a ball joint press. Part stores should have one of these to rent/borrow. They are simple and easy to use, but it's really the only way your going to easily get the ball joint back in. When it's installed, you can cut the bailing wire off holding everything out of your way and bolt the knuckle on once again. Last thing is install the Zerk fitting and grease up the ball joint. You don't want the zerk fitting installed BEFORE the ball joint is installed otherwise you'll end up braking it off the ball joint. Safer leaving it for last.

Again, you need NO Chain's, or block of wood. Floor jack right under the spring, and jacked up high enough so when using the ball joint press you can get it in without it hitting the ground. If your going to use a bottle jack, then maybe a piece of wood under the spring to make the bottle jack work better is a good Idea. If using a bottle jack, maybe even if you have a floor jack, a jack stand under the car of that corner just in car might be a good idea. You don't really want the weight of the car on the jack stand though, you want it on the JACK keeping the spring compressed. You want nothing under the ball joint as that makes it pretty hard to remove and install the ball joint. Sometimes the weight of the car in not quite enough to get it back together, as the spring is uncompressed just a bit, get a couple friends to clime onto that side to help and you should be able to get it back together again. Ball joints are pretty easy, yet in all my years of working on Suspensions, even removing and installing Springs themselves. I've never once used a chain, or cable or some other device. I've had a couple fly out doing some pretty risky moves to try and get things back together, and had no choice but experience to keep from hurting myself. For you, you not removing the spring, let alone installing it. It's not really much of a factor. Once there's a jack under the spring, and the weight of the car holding it down, it's compressed, and will pretty much stay compressed. So unless Gravity it's self disappears, don't worry about it. It's not going anywhere with the shock bolted on anyway.

"mathusala_jones" wrote in message news:25Hhi.76796$xq1.59973@pd7urf1no...

has anyone actually used any other methods then other than the ball joint press? i know its mickey mouse...but throw me a bone here

Yeah by your own admission you did once before and buggered the ball joint so bad you couldnt get the zerk fitting in it. Some people learn from their past mistakes, others dont.

Whitelightning

Yes, remove the lower A arm and use a shop press

Yes, i have installed many ball joints without the press.

Yes, that works also, but now you just made the job 100 times harder then it needs to be. Is it really that much of a problem to use a rent/borrow a ball joint press? This is a quick simple job that could have been DONE long ago now. Maybe he's looking some some HACK way to go about doing it. Really seems silly to me.

I fully agree jb, but he said he was looking for "other methods" so I threw that one his way :)

Ya there's almost always some way to go about doing something without the right tool. It's how much harder you want to make the job for yourself, and not screw it up in the process.