Ball Joint Press kit

Can anyone recommend a cheap ball joint press kit that has the right sized fittings to get er done on an 02 2wd?

 

Rent one from an auto parts store. Don't use a cheap Harbor Freight set.

 

You doing UBJ, LBJ, or both? You really only need a press for the UBJ. For LBJ you'll need a pitman arm puller and either a pickle fork or a tie rod separator (or similar puller to pop them apart).

For UBJ, I have a kit I think I bought at HF probably 20, maybe 25 years ago? And it worked fine once I got the knuckle out, but I had to use a C-press from another set. For the life of me I couldn't get it to work with the knuckle still installed, kept colliding with the plastic fender flares, and it's only a couple more bolts to pop out the knuckle, so I said screw it, and did it on the floor.

Anyway ... This is the kit I had on-hand: https://www.tundras.com/threads/wha...-gen-tundra-today.2558/page-1658#post-3263545

After frustration on my 1st attempt and reading around I ended up buying this kit from Astra, which had a lot of other bits to it, and the C-clamp was about 1" more mouth space.

But seriously, any of the 21pc kits you see on scAmazon should suit most people if doing UBJ. And if you cut off the spindle part of the UBJ, you don't need a wider-mouth press, and you can skip a couple of the bits you need to stack together normally, with a fully-intact (uncut) UBJ.

 

I bought a set of made to fit cups for my chinesium C clamp tool I bought sometime during the last century. A little pricey, but it made the work quick and smooth...

https://www.chaosfab.com/product/2000-2006-Toyota-Tundra-Ball-Joint-Removal-Tool-96005

 

For that price, I’d demand nice welds!

 

@assassin10000 was raving about those things if I recall. I managed to get by without but have seen multiple people say those are the silver bullet for our trucks if you already have the c-press/arbor part.

 

Not me. I recommend them tho.

 

My brain is getting feeble these days, now I’m curious who the hell im thinking of.

 

Try this one OP. I used this on my '03 Tacoma (same basic UBJ setup), and it worked like a charm. Should be on the free tool rental list at your local VatoZone (part #57170)

 

I bought the OTC "front end service kit" from Zoro.com.

I used two of the pullers from the kit to remove mine LBJ's from my 2006 Double Cab.

Here is the kit used in a video.

Lower Ball Joint Replacement Tutorial

The process went well but I would not recommend doing it in the backyard grass with hand tools. (That's what I did). I'd buy a good power wrench or whatever you call that.

I ended up damaging one outer tie rod so I replaced it but couldn't get the other outer tie rod to come off so I let a shop finish that part.

 

You were right about not needing a press on LBJs. I jacked it up a bit more, and switch to a bigger sledge...hit the bolt since im replacing...baam!! I didnt feel safe beating the crap out of the arm from the side as high as I had the jack...but from bottom-up worked great. Will prob get the kit you included for upper arms or rent free one. Now on to sliding the steering rack out so I can get the backside of the right rear control arm.

 

This things looks badass..ha. In all my research and vids Ive watched this is the first I have seen of this one..

 

thanks for the timmy vid...somehow I missed his.

 

Yea total game changer for getting out the UBJs. Not enough people know about it either

 

Hey man! I saw these a few days ago ..and started to buy them just to reduce the trial and error of finding the right fittings. If I hadn't been able to finally beat it out a cpl nights ago I think I would have. However, I still have to other side to do so well see how that goes. Before I crashed last night, I was able to get all of the bolts and nuts loosened, extracted from the steering rack so I can get to the back of the driver's side LCA bolt/nut. Kind of eerie torquing way up in the middle of the truck like that, I do have three points of contact tho. Kinda makes me want to go get another cheap floor jack for a fourth. With the driver's wheel off, I have already told myself, If I hear anything other than my impact to go into a quick barrel roll to my right...ha.

So, my boots are shredded and there is discoloring/staining from left most part of the rack the where the the inner TR connects all the way to the huge inverted nut (I guess this is grease from the shredded boot??? ) that's about a foot over to the right..not sure what that is called or what it's for. (The big hex inverted nut that is) ....... I'm looking up how many seals there are to replace in the rack while I'm in there. Trying to research if I should go ahead just remove it or can I replace seals with it the rack in in place. I like to take care of things while I'm in there even though it feels like I am going backwards. Ha. I'm dying to drive this truck....not seeing daylight yet but its round the bend.

 

Somebody here linked it in my LBJ thread.

Only thing is....the smaller puller used in that video didn't work for me plus smashed the threads on the outer tie rod.

So I used the tie rod puller thing and it worked far better.

Ended up replacing the outer tie rods each side....well....the stealership did! LOL

But the kit did work. One of those times I bought a set of tools to do a job I had never done before.

 

You were right, I didnt need anything but a hammer for the LBJ, I just needed to switch hammers and raise the truck up some more to have more room for my uppercut sledge swing..

 

It's sooooo much easier if you take the spindle out (and safer too!)