Ball joint tool size?

[Sobek]

Originally Posted by alexbrown64

That’s good news.
You will have to post up some pics and tutorials when u get going.
Tapatalk is pretty good for that..

Cheers,

Thanks for reminding me, I keep forgetting to try tapatalk. I use another forum for my other car and I keep meaning to get it for that too.

I don't know about tutorials as I'll be working it out as I go haha, but I'll definitely be taking some photos showing the befores and afters. After 25 years and nearly 300k kms, it'll be fascinating to me to see how the stock stuff has held up. I'm fairly sure my u-joints are mostly solid, but I hear some sound at certain speeds and conditions that in my mind just screams of dry needle bearings, so I may be on borrowed time. I couldn't get any driveshaft play while underneath and yanking about, but you never know.

Originally Posted by awg

I have heard they are good with fkd up orders, so that is pleasing

Can you detect any freeplay in your ball joints or unit bearings ?

Mine seem ok , but with 340k and an unknown service history, that would be my front almost done

Thing is I dont trust the cheaper quality items on offer via Ebay here, so thought I would order OEM quality for those and the U-joints from Rock Auto, and do that all at once

I'm glad they were so fast acting on it and didn't give me any grief. I'm sure they get a lot of people sending BS 'missing item' reports in, but I went all out on the photos and wrote a list of what I ordered, what I received, and exactly how I found the box and its contents to be and uploaded that as a picture too. I'm sure I seemed genuine to them

I haven't put the front on stands and done a full ball joint check, but I had it up for some front brake work a little while back and I could feel a fair bit of looseness along the 12-and-6 axis when I was playing around removing the wheel, so I'm fairly sure they're shot. My tie rods aren't too bad under there, but I'm going to replace those too as I have a set I bought years ago still waiting to go on. My XJ wanders everywhere, I probably look like a drunk driver to most people... The slightest breeze or change in the road surface has me going in all sorts of directions, and the front clunks on bumps (the clunk and corresponding physical sensation comes straight from the hub).

So I'm just going to hit it all, bugger it. But I will definitely document my findings and share as soon as I do

[Sobek]

Good news, got the passenger side ball joints changed out today (this is the side that the tyre was totally bald on the outside). It was... well it wasn't entirely fun. Things came apart pretty easy, and nothing was really seized so that was nice. But pressing in those new joints was a real pain. Obviously I just have that basic press kit as mentioned and not the angled cups, and no matter how I rigged it with washers or bits of plate steel, even when I had the alignment EXACT and I checked it 10 times over, the damn things wanted to press in on an angle! The bottom one is in with one side being off by about 1mm, but I was going to destroy something if I messed with it any more so I left it at that. The top one was twice as hard to get to press in, and after doing in on an angle twice I finally got it to go in straight. Not by using any washers or anything, but actually by using the 'wrong' receiver tube underneath, and basically letting that sit poorly off-center on the knuckle. Bit hard to explain, but in doing so it just put the driver above perfectly spot on, and after an hour of swearing at it the damn thing went in like it lived there.

It's a good thing I started with this side, the upper ball joint was solid as a rock, every bit as good as from the factory. But that lower one was a floppy, loose mess and was absolutely the cause of my wandering and tyre wear. I buttoned everything up and went for a quick trip to the shops tonight to see, unfortunately the transmission mount I replaced the other day seems to be playing up because it's clunking, knocking, rattling and generally just sucking. I had to baby it at 30km/h most of the way so I didn't really get to enjoy the new ball joints, grr. Tomorrow I'll climb under and take a look at that new tranny mount (I know I put it in perfectly, so I bet it's some new-vs-old design BS that's causing problems, we shall see).

Thanks for all of your help everyone, after this I think I have a solid plan of attack for the drivers side and should be able to knock it out in no time. As for those upper control arm bushings... ahh boy. Any ideas if this press kit is any good for those axle mounted bushings? Or can you recommend a kit that would be? Not looking forward to those, whose idea was it to press the bushings in ON THE AXLE?! Yikes.

[LuluBelle]

Good Job Man!..and think of the Money Saved!
Well done .. a Big Job in the Driveway
_____ooooo
/__l_l_,\____\,___
l_---l_l__l---[ ]llllll[ ]
_.(o)_)__(o)_)--o-)_)............. I kick scream swear and cry it sorta works for me

[awg]

Originally Posted by Sobek

Tomorrow I'll climb under and take a look at that new tranny mount (I know I put it in perfectly, so I bet it's some new-vs-old design BS that's causing problems, we shall see).

The old "machine gun under the XJ" lol

I had that upon installing a cheap ass trans mount from Rock Auto

What a piece of junk

When I removed it, and used my body weight to bounce up & down on it, was like a fkn tennis ball compared to the worn out old OEM mount

The rubber is way too soft and their is not enough of it

I ordered one from Oz Ebay, it was just under $100 I think

[Jonny Jeep]

When I bought I ball joint press years ago I got one without the angled adapter. I found some scrap steel tube at work the right sort of diameter, and used a cheap angle finder to measure the angle of the inner knuckle. I cut a piece of the tube using a 6 degree angle which worked well to keep things straight. I've since bought the proper angled adapter when I came across one at a reasonable price on ebay.

[alexbrown64]

Ok, I went through my Vsb14 thread, as I’ve done the diff bush change out. Here is a copy of that write up....

Back in the house and sucking down a cold Corona....job done. Allow about 4 hours to do the job. The cheap C clamp is invaluable in putting the left upper bush back in. Total cost of job including special tool was about $100 Aud. That's less than 1 hour of shop time.

For the right upper bush, i was able to get a screw driver between the lip of the bush and the diff bracket. I kept working it in and around..and eventually the bush started to prize out. then i was able to use a large screw driver and hammer to belt it out from the other side. I was able to lift my sway bar quick disconnect out of the way which gave me more room.



Putting the new bush back was easy. It went in by hand a bit, then i just started tapping in with a hammer. Got it most of the way like that. Used the C clamp to get that final bit. Just had to play around with the clamp to find the best combination of fittings to make it work. I also used my rattle gun, but you could just use a ratchet drive.



The left side was pretty tight. My ARB locker airline was in the way and also the sway bar mount. Got rid of both of those and i had a clear run at it. The lip on this bush sticks out further as the bush does not go in as far. I could get various punches, screwdrivers and chisels on it to start prizing it out. I had the best luck from the back. Using a long punch and hammer, i could slowly drive it out.

I cleaned up the recess, got the new one ready and set up the C clamp as in the pic below. The hardest part was setting up the C clamp and all the fitting by yourself....wedged under the car in a tight spot etc..
Anyway, got it done and using the rattle gun, it just drove it into position. Its a tight interference fit that one!!



Anyway, job got done.. refitted the control arms and everything and packed it all away.

A few things of note. I have a tall lift, so its not too bad. You may have to put your Jeep on jack stands. I have adjustable control arms, so i just turned them to line up with the new bushes. If you don't have adjustable control arms, you may have to play around with getting the new bolts back into the control arms.. thats no game changer, but could be a hassle.

Next job is returning the cooling system from triple threat electric fans to ZJ mechanical fan upgrade..

Cheers,

[awg]

good writeup as usual Alex.

I have poly "inner" UCA bushes to install, which leave the original metal outer sleeve in place, but I do have to drill & burn out the inner rubber and metal tube

It looks somewhat easier than installing OEM ones, and I hope it is, otherwise I will be stranded

@OP... I would place new ones in freezer overnight, and have read an air chisel/hammer is the easy way to get the old ones out

I actually made myself a tool of threaded rod, steel plate, washers and nuts, this should be able to drive one in, and in my case, possibly help drive the old inner out, aided & abbetted by my impact gun