Upper ball joint removal ?

Getting ready to do some front end work on my 2006 with 270,000 miles on it. Can't seem to find the right ball joint press set up from the local parts stores. Was curious what others have figured out. The auto parts guys say to use a big hammer to knock it out, not real thrilled with that idea. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

 

I just use a mini sledge or regular sledge. Just did it to my 2019...used a full size sledge. Loosen the nut down but dont take it off, then smack the side of the spindle. Should be a flat spot on the spindle by the ball joint. Some times I'll have someone hold a flat piece of metal to give me more of a hitting spot.

 

Or buy a ball joint separator...this was from advanced auto parts for $12. I have one of these too but the sledge is funner

 

My 2006 upper ball joint is pressed in the steering knuckle. Pressing it out is the problem.

 

Mine was too. Took a couple smacks with the ole BMFH and she popped right out. I used the BMFH on my upper ball joints, tierods, and axles. Always used a BMFH on all my vehicles

 

The press from Advance will work, that's what I used on my 04. I had to use a combination of different adapters in the kit but it worked.

 

I used an Oreilly Auto rented press. it was a pain in the rear because it didn't fit right, but I kept trying and made it work.

 

Rent the press from autozone or whatever the store is in your area. Spray around where the joint pressed in with penetrating oil before hand. It's really in there so it will take a lot of force to get out and it's hard to get the press tool into place and get leverage.

I would disconnect the sway bar on both sides to get a little more droop, and if that's not enough unbolt the lower shock and support the lower arm with a jack. When I pulled mine I used the adapter from Total Chaos, it was maybe $15 but it worked perfect to press out the joints.

 

Finally did my upper ball joints, rented a press and couldn't get the right setup with the sockets that came with the press so I pressed it out directly on the spindle of the BJ. Came out pretty easy with some PB blaster and a cordless impact. Also did the lower BJ and upper and lower control arms and Tie rod ends. Drives great.

 

Hate to revive an old thread on UCA ball joint removal, but it’s better than starting a new thread. I’ve bought Toyo front bearing and seals to try to address a front end road noise, but can’t localize which wheel yet. Sounds like passenger. No play in bearing or noise when jacked up. Rotated tires and bought a new tire to try to silence what I think is passenger front bearing. Still not sure. LBJ was replaced back in 2007 according to Toyo America
My issue is that I had trouble getting passenger tapered ball joint to release in upper control arm despite beating it with a sledge hammer. My pickle fork is too narrow for grease boot, the large clothespin-shaped BU rental tool from Autozone slipped off the rounded UCA contours. Not as easy as the A1 auto or Chrisfix videos.
Was wondering exactly which rental tool OR which kit to buy would enable me to press it out from the loosened top nut. See several on Amazon here in Prime day but worry about fitting in wheel well. I can rent the bearing press kit for bearing and have the ubiquitous HF press at the ready. I’ll probably send it to a shop if I can’t get past the stuck ball joint.

This can serve as my introduction and only post since joining 5 years ago when I bought my ‘05 Doublecab sr5 2wd in white. No rust on frame (from NC), but Has/had some body damage and was sold off at auction for $2200 in SC. Brother-in-law sold it to me for $3300 with 233k and no history available on it from Concord/HickoryNC dealer where it was from. Now has 286 k. I had timing belt replaced for good measure with Aisin kit, did a drive shaft service and replaced rear wheel bearing with purchased special tool and my press to get rid of shimmy in 2019. Rides smooth and most everything works except aux power and rear defrost (cracked copper, most likely).
I’m a Toyo guy from way back, so no worries, I’m a solid fan, but this has been my first truck. Have sorely needed it.
Oh yeah, the aftermarket backup camera integrated into clipon mirror has been indispensable. Backups were YIKES!before.

 

https://www.autozone.com/test-scan-...Cu4Luw1DJhHgxLV21ExoCALkQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Try this. I used it recently and it's by far the easiest way to press out or in, new OEM upper ball joints on a 1st Gen Tacoma. AFAIK the 1st Gen Tundra shares the same basic UBJ/knuckle design, and this would work wonders. It should be available as a free rental from your local AutoZone

 

Recent activity on page 3. Upper & Lower Balljoints

 

Been there, done that. They're a bitch to hammer out, albeit impossible if you do something stupid, like fail to take out the retention clip.

Do yourself a huge favor. Pull the f'n knuckle (spindle, whatever you prefer). It's so much easier to use a basic balljoint press kit with the knuckle on the ground, in a vice, wherever. You really hafta finagle things to get the top of the knuckle pointed just right, and risk scratching the hell out of your fender flares. I tried like hell, and even on my rust-free 75k mile '06 Limited, I couldn't get it all together.

If you aren't comfortable pulling the knuckle (it's only a couple more bolts, and if 4WD, popping off the CV nut), then take a cutoff wheel and lop off the spindle from the UBJ, it'll give you ample room and a flatter surface to press the old one out.

I spent 2 hours trying to finagle a setup that would work with the knuckle in. It took me (and I timed it) 14 minutes to pull the knuckle on the passenger side, and 10 minutes to pull the spindle on the driver side. Once out, I had the old joint pressed out in about 90 seconds with the knuckle on the floor. I'm 4WD, if it matters. If you're 2WD it should take five minutes less per side.

 

Thanks! My issue is the upper, not the lower ball joint that bolts in. I’ll try to check some of the leads in that thread for sure

 

If that thread didn't help, we've got a dozen more, people don't seem to love trying to search much before posting for help, then disappear without saying a peep just as fast as they arrived. Kinda lame behavior, but I guess that's the kinda shit you get on the internet.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/another-ball-joint-thread.141238/

Check the video in reply # 16 for one example of how to pull the UBJ w/o removing a knuckle. It's on a Sequoia which shares more with the double cabs than it does with the regular/access cab trucks, so it'll be more true to your experience.

 

Shifty, thanks. I kinda thought removing the ball joint in the upper control arm was the way to remove the whole knuckle in order to do the bearing. Yup, that was my goal …unless you are suggesting unbolting the whole upper control arm, with the ball joint stuck in place, I’m not seeing how that’s possible with the spring tension. EDIT: just saw your link to the video resources and watched the post #16. Nope, it’s the tapered top end under the castle nut that is frozen, and tapping it doesn’t release it, but good info on ordering the correct adapter for Honda/toyota if I actually need to replace the BJ and press in a new one. At this point it doesn’t need it (unless I cut it off or pierce the grease boot to use my undersized pickle fork).
The lower looks like it’ll be easier to get out—had everything loose there already, including the abs sensor, calipers etc.

Man, I feel your pain. Mine’s rust free also. It’s just spent 286k bouncing up and down on that tapered ball joint. I’ll eyeball it again.

 

I used a pickle fork for the lbj & tre. Ubj came out using pliers as a press, no heat.

 

I might've misunderstood you. I thought you were trying to replace your UBJ. In which case, you've gotta press it out of the knuckle.

If you're just trying tp pull the knuckle, there's an extra step for 4WD which involves taking off the CV Axle nut, but gist of it is simple:

• If 4WD, pull the cotter and cover for CV axle nut, impact the CV axle nut off (if 2WD, I don't think you gotta do anything)
• Properly lift and secure the truck, pop off the wheel, unbolt and hang the caliper
• Unbolt and carefully pull out the wheel speed/ABS sensor, mind the o-ring, unbolt its harness from the knuckle, set carefully aside
• Pull the UBJ cotter, spin off the UBJ top nut, and if you need to re-use the UBJ, flip the castle nut over and spin down until its butt is just shy of being flush with the spindle threads, then BFH that MF'er until it drops loose (may help to have the OEM bottle jack under the control arm for support. If you don't need to re-use the UBJ, shove a pickle fork in between the boot and UCA, then hammer it free.
• Pop off the rotor
• Unbolt the LBJ, all four bolts
• Remove the loose castle nut off the UBJ spindle, then lift and pull the knuckle out if 2WD ... if 4WD, carefully tap the CV axle spindle in to free it, then shimy it out of the knuckle, and hang the CV with a bungee ... don't tug on the CV excessively or yank on it hard, it WILL potentially pull out of the front diff
• Install is the reverse. Be sure to use at least blue threadlock on the LBJ bolts, and torque to OEM spec. Reference the FSM for torque specs on the caliper, UBJ, LBJ, etc. and be sure to exercise caution when reinstalling the wheel sensor

WARNING: If replacing the LBJ, as you should do at least every 125k-150k miles proactively, do not use any brand other than OEM, and, honestly, replace all 8 bolts while you're in there for safety's sake. The OEM design generally puts way too much strain on the LBJ, and aftermarket LBJ from all brands (incuding Moog, Napa, Delco, you name it) are complete shitware, prone to failure. We've got threads with dozens of failure pics from others who failed to heed the warning.

 

Oh and end result moneyshot, with one last piece of advice. Always disconnect the front swaybar before lifting any time you're doing shit with the suspension, @05Dub :

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Oh and obligatory "FU, UBJ" photo, they're unnecessarily painful on these trucks.

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thanks a bunch. Mine’s 2wd, and I was afraid to hit it with the BFH and dent it all to heck, like I saw in another thread.

Talk about being a bone head, I didn’t know the rotor would just pop off with a hit or two…hence I never got to the part of the videos where you pull the cv axle through the knuckle. I saw that in the post 16 of the other thread.
Ok, I’m going to stop posting and will plan on more work when cooler weather hits tomorrow!

 

bruhhh you didn't cut it? I will never leave a UBJ whole ever again.

 

Holler if you hit any issues. Dozens of us have been thru this rodeo, some several times. There's really not a lot to it. And you should also know, check the 5th line in this thread, click "Service Manuals" link, and download the '05-'06 PDF to your computer! It has all the stuff you need to know about your truck and maintenance items, diagnostics, etc!

You're lucky, you don't have CV axles up front so it's way easier.

And yeah, to loosen the UBJ from the UCA, the easiest way I've found during the half dozen times I popped mine free is just like above: Remove UBJ cotter. Remove UBJ castle nut. Flip the castle nut over and basically spin it down until it's nearly flush with the spindle bolt (i.e. almost like it's got a flat surface all the way across, which should leve a 1/8" or so gap between the castle side and the UCA). Then hammer the shit out of it, it should pop out within 3-4 good, solid hits down onto the nut/spindle, and the nut will catch the knuckle from falling and flopping out. When you're ready, lift up the assembly, spin off the nut, and voila! You're in business.

Having that many threads engaged on the castle nut, and having it nearly flush will avoid wrecking the UBJ spindle threads and having the castle nut upside down like that not only gives you a nice flat surface to work with, but if you try this with the castle side of the nut facing up, you'll damage the little towers on the nut (example pic)! Super important to wind it down with the butt side up before hammering. Very common preactice for all kinds of joints.

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Nah, I didn't want to deal with the sparks, castoff, or other mess. It only saves a couple minutes cutting it off, and I gotta be honest, I kinda wanted to go through everything and fully go over, inspect everything, tighten it all down.

I mean, I didn't reaaaally want to tear it down that much, but I kinda wanted to, if that makes sense?

I needed an exit plan also, "just in case". Once you cut that spindle off, you're fucked, you're invested, it's game over. Having not worked on tearing down the front end of a 1st gen prior, I wanted a backout plan.

But yeah, lesson learned.

 

See I just cut this part off
Much easier to get the clamp on and a socket will fit in the ball joint now.

I don't know, I did both ways and the cut off wheel method took me wayyy less time cause I wasn't having get the cups to sit just right.

 

I’m liking the looks of this tool …. I’ll know what to look for on the rental tool mat. I don’t recall seeing this one, but I just mistook it for a generic puller maybe. Thanks!

 

Yup, that's the suggestion from an old post on Tundra Solutions also. It's pretty much the only way you can reliably press the old joint out without hassle and a basic press, without having to juggle 3-6 cups and plates in a BJ press and hope it lines up. But then you still gotta press the new joint in.

Honestly, I don't know why anyone would touch the uppers unless it's clear they're dry and/or damaged. They have little to no load on them, and are stout as shit so they seem to last forever.

 

Yep. It's a pain. I sold my 98 Tacoma with 330,000 miles, original UBJs. No sign of issues. But when I bought the Tundra at 225,000 miles, the UBJ boots were disintegrating. Had clearly been cracked for years. Otherwise I wouldn't have even thought about replacing them.

 

No problem. This one is far better than the typical sleeve style bushing/ball-joint C-clamp press tools most places offer. I was able to remove both ball joints in like 5 minutes with it