Anyone have any advice or tricks to make it go smoothly? I'm very mechanically inclined, but I've never had to replace ball joints on anything I've owned. I suppose there's a first time for everything, right? The left one fell apart on me yesterday, luckily it was 5 minutes after I got off the highway... Here's what she looks like. I'm assuming some heat & a good set of pliers to hold the stud will let me get the nut off pretty easily? Or should the stud not turn since it's still seated?
there is the option of heating the control arm up so it expands and beating out the ball joint to get it out...but then you run the risk of warping the control arm and damaging the new ball joint when hammering it in...
i think most autoparts stores will rent a ball joint press...if not, save yourself hassle and time and buy one
