Upper ball joint removal ?

Yup, that was me. I couldn't for the life of me get the UBJ to pop out of the UCA. I beat that bitch like it owed me money. I ended up using a ball joint press in a really awkward way to get it to pop loose so I could pull the spindle out.

 

I've had about 75/25 luck with whacking any TRE, pitman, idler, BJ outside its joint and actually having it drop out, where it's 75% fail rate and I'm grabbing the puller.

It almost feels like those stereogram pictures where, if you cross your eyes just right, you see a 3D image? Like, there's a trick to it, but after probably 4 decades of trying, I've sure as hell never been able to get it more than once or twice, and I couldn't repeat it twice if I tried.

 

Seems I had to tap on the bottom of my control arms to get the upper ball joint to separate from the control arms.

05Dub, when you do have it out, since I read you have the HF available to you, you can use that to easily press your upper ball joints out of your spindles. When I did my wheel bearings I swapped my upper ball joints as well. I used a press plate and a ball joint cup on the under side of the upper ball joint, then used a socket on the top of the ball joint and pressed it out with the HF press. I did cut the threaded section off the upper ball joint to fit the socket over it.

 

hey sorry I’m late to the party! I’m needing to replace both my lower and upper ball joints, as the previous owner did a kit from 1A auto and I’m paranoid as hell.

Anyways, I noticed you recommend this tool from autozone. Would I set it up the same way as they do in the little tutorial video? As if I were doing it for a pitman arm?

Also, when you used it, did you remove the knuckle/spindle or were you able to use this tool in place? Thanks!!

 

Yes it would be set up in the same way, but you'd have the mouth of the puller facing down towards the wheel hub to push the upper ball joint down out of the steering knuckle.

I was able to use this tool to remove the upper ball joint with the knuckle in the truck still. Keep in mine all of this work was on my '03 (first gen) Tacoma, but that Tacoma and your Tundra have virtually identical front suspension setups.

 

Thanks for the quick reply! One more question, did you cut off part the old ball joint so the puller would fit properly? thanks again

 

Not a problem, and no I didn't need to cut anything. The tool fit without doing so

 

If you're replacing the lower ball joints at the same time, then I'd remove the steering knuckle from the truck and replace the upper ball joints with it off the truck. That way you don't have to worry about it fitting.

That's what I did when I did mine. If you have access to a shop press, you can use it to press out your old upper ball joint and press the new one in. I did it that way, certainly made it easy.

 

Understand something: The distribution of stress/torsion/load between lower and upper bj is probably like 90/10 or something, where 90% of the load is on the lower bj, and 10% (maybe even less) is seen on the upper. Basically my tl;dr way of saying, "your fears are unfounded".

You're at a higher risk of cracking that hoop in the knuckle where your upper bj sits while pressing it in/out than you are of having that A1 upper bj fail on you. I wouldn't recommend swapping it, honestly. I've seen a couple of knuckles now that had cracked at that upper hoop/mounting hole for the UBJ, actually more times than I've seen failed UBJ.

It's really important not to conflate the two with the design on these trucks and some gens of Tacoma:

• LBJ = Tons of load, high risk of joint and mounting hardware failure.
• LBJ = Very little load, low risk of joint failure.

A very easy way to separate the UBJ from the knuckle without using pullers and without beating the living shit out of the UCA is as follows, so you can repurpose as needed, using @bmf's pic above, and hacking it a bit...

Take the castle nut. Flip it upside down so the crown is facing downward as hacked to show here. Get it to the point that (A) the nut is almost flush with the UBJ ball stud but the stud must be flush to or nut a fraction of a millimeter higher, and (B) there are 2-3 stud threads visible between the nut crown and UCA, like this pic tries to show. With this setup you can give a couple of stout BFH (big f'n hammer) blows to the base of the nut. If you try this with the castle pointing upward, big mistake, you'll fuck up the crowns of your castle nut. But doing it like this with the crowns facing down, you preserve the crown, you won't damage the threads of the nut or ball stud, and the joint should pop free. If not, wedge something solid between the ground and the UCA to lift up the UCA slightly, so the suspension won't articulate when you smack (maybe necessary for some rust belt folks).

​

 

Hey shifty, thanks for the reply.
So from what I gather, I should just leave the UBJ alone? The previous owner installed a kit from 1A Auto around 7 years ago/40k miles and that was: UBJ, LBJ, inner and outer tie rods. I had planned on replaced all with OEM. But maybe I should wait on the UBJ? Thanks, Shifty!

 

If he then proceeds to swap the upper ball joints after separating it from the UCA, then that Heavy Duty Pittman Arm Puller I recommended above works like a charm.

 

Canoeguy,
My goal was to remove the whole knuckle to change the wheel bearings possibly, since I have an annoying noise. Hence needing to get the upper control arm ball joint loose.
No, I didn’t have luck with the last tool rented from Autozone, which possibly was the one mentioned above. The two feet/hooks at the bottom of the clamp weren’t long enough to grab the rounded shape of it—and the bolt and wing nut were not long enough to open the jaws wide. I went to my bolts bucket and the hardware store to widen it. Can’t remember exactly why, but it didn’t work for me. I can’t upload my iPhone’s video for some reason (too long? a minute, and my still shots have adjacent thumbnails along the bottom, so I won’t upload now. What a pain to have to go to a laptop ), but I filmed as I sat on a metal fence pole lodged carefully between the UCA and the knuckle, and, combined with propane heating and pb blaster, my weight and hammer blows broke it loose and ripped a hole in my favorite jeans in the butt. The old 3-sided pole was about 5’ long, and I sat on it and bounced while banging it. Have to be careful with rubber grease boot and abs wire.
The hub turned out to be dead silent and never had any play, so I delayed the bearing replacement and will monitor the noise. Watch and wait for now. The vehicle weight may bring out the noise, I know, but it’s not a drive ability or safety issue yet.
I have no idea how this image will upload. Apologies if it’s a huge pic.

 

No doubt, I believe you. I'm just saying, the way I described, the UBJ popped free with two or three not-even-that-hard taps. And having the castle nut threaded on with 2-3 threads between the nut and UCA, the nut naturally prevents the knuckle from dropping out totally, which is a very-real risk, while also giving enough space for it to dislodge. I hear that tool is handy for other jobs too. I have an old school pitman/idler puller and used them for the LBJ.

FYI, in your profile's "Vehicle One-Line Description" you failed to include "2WD" or "4WD" so we know what you're working with. You also didn't put "SR5" or "Limited" which may help others help guide you with future issues. If you want better-tailored help, go here and update that, please. We don't need to know your truck is a "Tundra". You're on a Tundras forum. Listing the year and engine will be clear enough to 99% of the people here.

Anyway, #1 focus, get those LBJ done. If you're already pulling the LBJ, and you don't mind popping off a few more bolts, you could very easily pull the knuckle, and swap both out. Obviously, if your truck is 4WD there's a bit more difficulty and risk, and a few extra steps to take like loosening the CV Axle nut before getting started, and hanging the CV, and doing your best not to accidentally pull the CV axle out of the diff, but ... generally speaking, for 2WD/4WD you just need to remove the brake caliper and hang it, and for 4WD you have the extra steps of dealing with the CV.

I wouldn't be very concerned about aftermarket UBJ, but "if you're in there" and planning to pull the knuckle anyway, may as well do it. I think you'd be crazy not to remove the knuckle if doing the UBJ. But the #1 elephant in the room is the LBJ in this case! Don't lose sight of that.

Those swaybar link bushings are both way over-compressed and totally fucked.

 

Yeah, sorry about that! I made the account in a haste and overlooked some things. I will change that.

 

Canoeguy,
My goal was to remove the whole knuckle to change at the wheel bearings possibly, since I have an annoying noise. Hence needing to get the upper control arm ball joint loose.
No, I didn’t have luck with the last tool rented from Autozone, which possibly was the one mentioned above. The two feet/hooks at the bottom of the clamp weren’t long enough to grab the rounded shape of it—and the bolt and wing

 

Wish I’d known about flipping the castle but and hammering it, but there is a chance I did that but was afraid to bugger even the threads, if I recall. I see that you say to use as many threads as possible to avoid that. Trust me that it didn’t pop out as depicted on TV when the UCA was hammered, and I was cautious of doing damage or slipping up and hitting something else.

Canoe, be careful to torque (possibly locktite?) the LBJ bolts properly. Ask me how I know. I ordered new ones and have them, but I was in a hurry and reused the old bolts, didn’t torque, and lost one. I plan to replace all of them them. My truck had had the warranty lbj replacement by a dealer somewhere before I bought it 5 years ago.

Yeah, Shifty, the sway bushings may be crispy, but the truck is not a northern truck and is not rusty. The steering and handling of my truck are one of the most enjoyable things about how it drives (one finger steering), and I’ve got bigger fish to fry:
1. finally getting the brakes bled after my master cylinder swap.
2. anticipating the front wheel bearing job (having the correct cups or sockets to press it in/ of the hub on my press. I’ve done a rear bearing but chose to skip the front for now)

All good info, Shifty, and good luck CanoeGuy. ! I’m just by myself with my old mom and I can’t chance getting stranded.

 

Yep...the ol Pickle Fork.
Bought one,used it for one job and now it just sits in the tool box.

 

Tex, I have had one forever. The fork on mine and most if them is too narrow and mangles the grease boot for those of us not putting in new ball joints. Eyeball test at parts store sees the same width only. Mine is Advance Auto also, I believe

 

The pickle fork is great for any joint that does not need to be reassembled...it will pretty much destroy the rubber and god knows what else. So if you're trying to separate the upper joint from the control arm to remove the spindle, for example, then don't use a pickle fork. But if you're try to remove and replace the upper ball joint then it's an excellent persuader.

 

Yeah...you should definitely buy some boots if you're going to use one.
Tearing them is pretty common.

 

I was able to separate OTRs from LBJ with a pickle fork without damaging the boots. IIRC, I detached the boot and slipped it down out of the pinch area before hammering? I don't recall at this point.

 

I know different things work for different people and some people don't like accumulating tools, but I'll take the clamp-style separators over pounding tools any day. Especially on the UBJ, the wheel well gets in the way of getting a good swing. I thought I was doing the flipped castle nut method right, but when I tried the BFH method a couple months ago on my UBJ, I almost mangled the threads enough to ruin the joint. The top of the stud started getting misshapen and bent. I went and grabbed the puller/separator and it popped off with no drama. BFH method isn't for me.

 

Yeah, if you deformed the head of the stud, your nut was spun down too far. I flip the castle nut and spin it down to a smidge above the tip of the ball stud's threading, just shy of flush. The hammer should be primarily impacting the bottom of the castle nut. "Flush to the stud or a smidge higher" is what I think I wrote above. If the ball stud is proud of the nut, you will absolutely mangle the ball stud's threading.

At the end of the day though, you used what method worked for you, and that's all that matters.

 

I learned that the hard way.

When I replaced my UBJs, I also somehow set the castle nut wrong. I think I had it flush, and used the clamp-style separator. Rather than popping the joint, the forced the castle nut down the stud and stripped the threads. I had to order a new castle nut.

 

MT, I agree, and it just depends on when it’s last been removed. I had to back off after worrying about the threads.

Why don’t you share a picture or description of which separator you used? I could post a rogues gallery of pullers that didn’t work.

 

If it makes you feel better, I mangled my castle nut too, and had to rush to the dealer last-minute to get it done. I had a bunch of health shit going on at the time and knew I had surgery coming soon, and was rushing to get my suspension done. I think I must've gotten distracted and spun the castle nut down with crown side up, and bent one of the crowns. That was some fun drama for me. The ball stud did pop free using my method, ultimately, but I had to button everything back up because I was flat-out unable to press that UBJ out with any kit or method I tried.

 

Damn, yeah. I had to use nylock nuts till the castle came in. It was a Saturday, and I was doing the work at a friend's house in a different town. Nylock nuts worked till the next time I could be back to town. I could have had them mailed but I figured the nuts were good enough for a couple weeks.

 

OTC front end kit has had everything I've needed for front end work, except for the specialty cups needed to actually replace, not just pop, the UBJ.









I don't remember off the top of my head, but I used one of these. Probably the larger, "scissor" type one.