ball joint

[MercsSC]

well made it home to kingston and back ..before the passenger ball joint popped apart ...and front end of the car hit the ground ...what a pain ...managed to jack the lower control arm back into the ball joint ..and beat the phuck out of the lip ...of the socket part to hold the ball in place ...to get it home ...now have to take it apart ...anyone used a vise to replace[press out/press in]a ford ball joint ..or is a press ...the only way to do it ..if press only... I'll have to break ..out my welder and weld some more contact area ..to hold the a arm from popping out..... to get it to a press ...vice I have ...crappy tire is 53 bucks for a ball joint ...thanks for any advice on the subject ....dave

[lazybird4pt6]

crappy tire... balljoint kit.... RENT it... uses a vice and special "sockets"... presto-change-o... ;) :D

[fat_stan]

you should be able to do it with a vise considering that ford uses a u-joint tool to press out and press in the ball joint.

http://members.tccoa.com/fat/ujointtool.jpg

i'd personally save myself the trouble and just replace the whole lower control arm (comes with new ball joint and not too much more expensive). you'll end up with new bushing too.

[MercsSC]

cool think i'll try the vise ...was looking for the control arm ...but seems no aftermarket..@ CTC or Napa ..and well Partsource ..they have nothing ...all have ball joints for around 50 bucks ...got a 50 dollar CTC gift card .. for Xmas ...so CTC wins... thanks for the help...dave

[fat_stan]

actually partsource carries the lca.

anyway, let me know if it worked out and how you happened to pop the old ball joint socket out and how you pressed in the new ball joint

[MercsSC]

all didn't go well ...in replacing ball joint ..but did get it done... a vice wasn't the way to go .. pressing out the old ball joint ..maybe with the Ford tool in hand ..that fat_stan is showing ...ended up taking it to my buds machine shop ....and using the 20 ton press ...whiched proved to be an interesting challenge it's self ...not alot of metal on the lower control arm ..bottom part ..where the ball joint goes in ..to press against ...to press the old ball joint out ...no problem pressing it in ...lots of surface on the top ...

I was doing 60 klm ...when the ball joint let loose with a loud bang...wasn't to bad in the beginning...A arm fell down ..onto the inside of the rim ...I was thinking flat tire ...then the shake started.... A arm fell to the ground ....but when the A arm first fell ....down on the inside of the rim and tire ..it acted like a lathe ...and scored it up bad ...I was alittle unhappy ..and then found a crack in the rim ..on a stud hole ...when I was finnishing yesterday ..which I'm not sure is related .. to the ball joint breaking..or not ..I always tighten the lug nuts by hand in a torque pattern and all were tight ....just a wierd crack line ...time for the XR7 rims to go on ....dave