Upper Ball Joint Replacement / Tool size needed - tried searching

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maxx4wd

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To those that have replaced their front upper ball joints - what tool did you use to do the removal and re-install. Both of my joints have broken seals so I'm hoping to just swap them without taking the upper control arm off the vehicle (if I have to take off the upper control arms I'm just going to replace the whole arms but my bushings look ok and I don't have any play so I'd much rather just press out the old ball joints and call it a day)

My only real question is a) has anyone on here done it and b) what ball joint set do you have so I can grab the tools - I'm not opposed to just renting them from autozone or o'reilleys if they have the right size as I probably won't do this job again anytime soon.

thanks for any info.
 

maxx4wd

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Just an update...I ended up renting the ball joint press from O'Reilly's Auto - (can't recall what brand it was) but after removing the threaded screw cap I was able to get the ball joint pressed out. The threads were too long to fit within the press so this ended up working great (sorry I was so focused on rigging it to work I didn't end up taking many pics). Pressing the new joint went much smoother - placed the press on normally and with some elbow grease was able to strong arm and press into place. I was hoping to use my cordless impact but there is absolutely not enough room to do that. So expect to use only hand tools...oh and bring a buddy...I had my kids help me just keep the tool and cups in place until I got some tension on everything and that was the trick...you can do it by yourself as I did on my first one but it takes FOREVER and do yourself a favor and get a piece of cardboard or something to cover your CV boot as it could get torn if one of the cups falls and contacts it...otherwise not a terrible job but definitely not a real fun one either. Just leaving this here in case it helps anyone out.
 

doitallLR00

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Just an update...I ended up renting the ball joint press from O'Reilly's Auto - (can't recall what brand it was) but after removing the threaded screw cap I was able to get the ball joint pressed out. The threads were too long to fit within the press so this ended up working great (sorry I was so focused on rigging it to work I didn't end up taking many pics). Pressing the new joint went much smoother - placed the press on normally and with some elbow grease was able to strong arm and press into place. I was hoping to use my cordless impact but there is absolutely not enough room to do that. So expect to use only hand tools...oh and bring a buddy...I had my kids help me just keep the tool and cups in place until I got some tension on everything and that was the trick...you can do it by yourself as I did on my first one but it takes FOREVER and do yourself a favor and get a piece of cardboard or something to cover your CV boot as it could get torn if one of the cups falls and contacts it...otherwise not a terrible job but definitely not a real fun one either. Just leaving this here in case it helps anyone out.
Where did you get the new ball joint from? I need to press mine out and replace it.
 

maxx4wd

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Honestly I don't recall where I got the ball joint from...probably O'Reilly's or Autozone...maybe carparts.com lucky8 maybe...britishpartsofutah...but I know I didn't buy it from the dealer as they wanted like 150 or something stupid like that...
 

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