How to Replace Ball Joints Step by Step on Most SUV's and Trucks

welcome back to fat bottomed out detailing in this video the Jeep needs upper and lower ball joints I'm going to show you how to do it let's do it [Music] [Music] so I got a lot of stuff going on today and I do have the exhaust panel on so you might be hearing the noise in the background but I'm gonna show you and have you changing it and I'm not doing this at this stuff on video but I'm changing the transfer case fluid and the front and rear differentials and I used all the AMSOIL fluids here's my upper and lower ball joints and I also got some sway bar links and sweep our bushings and then here I have some quick struts and some rear shocks and I got my grease and stuff and a Boston under under body paint rubber rubber eyes on the Thunder Cody or the car for the rear and the front and waist and stuff I just wanna get some so I just want to kind of give you guys quick overview of all the stuff that I'm doing but I'm not showing all of this on camera or they may be shown on camera are the ball joints okay so when you do ball joints you're gonna need some type of ball to impress you can give them out Harbor Freight you can get into any automotive store you can also get you know expensive ones like snap-on Matco or well Mac stuff like that this one right here is - the powerbuilt I bought this when my wife worked at CARQUEST when she was a manager of CARQUEST she was manager of Karpis forever until I got bought out by bands I bought this from CARQUEST you can still buy this at Advance Auto Parts you can still get stuff warranty for through advanced autoparts this kid I thinks about - it's been a long time since I bought at two to three hundred dollars I think back here you know kind of gives you directions on how to do stuff that's what this is right here it's kind of it you can flip the pages up but basically what you got is you got a big seat clamp big heavy-duty C clamp you got your fortune screw which is gonna force the ball joint out and force the new ball joint in you've got all your cups all your adapters like this one right here I have to use this kit when I do Chevy Trailblazer because Trail Blazers on the lower control arm there's two little notches on each side that you have to catch with this but it won't fit back here that's why it's cut out the way it is so the kid I'm still use I don't use it very long anybody's ever used one of these knows you know when you're putting these when you're putting these cups on here like this all this thing does this little I'm trying to do this one-handed all this thing does is it sits down in the press I'll show you if I can probably can we put the camera it's gonna sit down in the press like so just like that that's it and if you've ever used one of these you know that it can quickly become hazardous sorry people it can quickly become hazard hazardous when you get the ball joint out and these things just fall to the floor and hit your shin your toes cuz I don't I don't wear steel toe boots I've hurt my feet really bad and it's really hard to stand all day long on a concrete floor and those in my opinion so I I don't wear them anymore right dummy I'm a lot more comfortable in in my shoes now this key right here this snap-on kit it is expensive you know this one like I said is - to 250 this one is about 650 I think right now from snap-on and yes if you're somebody that works out of your garage you know working on your own cars you do not need this kit at all that's not why I'm showing this kid I'm showing this kit this is what I use every time I do ball joint which is weekly around here seems like I did a lot of ball joints you try the most that's probably I do more than anything else better than Brady small joint some breaks but this kid is worth every single penny if you're a professional and you do this daily because it speeds time up when you get ball joints done so quickly with this I mean this this clamp seat clamp light of all the press is humongous it weighs a ton makes that thing feel like a little baby and it's got this big forcing screw with big threads on it and the nice thing about it is the threads are greasable so we keep grease on them and then you got your cups and what I really really like about this design I'll put the camera down see if I can show you what I like about this design is see this little Ridge right here hoop that little Ridge right there so when you're putting your your cup on there it snaps in look it doesn't fall off it's not gonna hit your toes it's a great design snap-on you know knocked it out of the park on this one I guess I should say but they do charge a lot more than what what they should but they know mechanics need them but it is a time-saver and it's I don't know I hate say it's worth the money because six hundred dollars a lot of money for this but it's worth it when you do them daily I can tell you that much and the last thing you're gonna need as far as apologizing you're gonna need some type of snap ring kit this one has a snap-on snap-on kit for your external snap rings to hold the ball joints in if you're handsome you're doing half that ring on some cars don't have that part pressed in and that's what holds them in so we're gonna do it on the passenger side here because I'm close to my toolbox have to watch over here and that way if I want to eat tools I'm close I don't have to walk around the car and leave you guys with cording so we're gonna do the upper ball joint you get a life we're gonna do the upper ball joint right there and then we're going to do the lower ball joint which is right there let me get the camera all set up I'm gonna try to get the lighting the best I can our shops lighting is not the greatest even though we have all LED lights in here it's it's still not the grace it's better than it was I can tell you that much so let me get the camera set up the first thing you wanna do is get your wheel off obviously you're going on a turn turn the wheel and you notice I did not paint the back of the calipers ain't nobody gonna see this I'm not wasting my paint but uh yeah make sure my microphone was on what you wanna do is you want to get these 21 millimeters out you do not need to take these out right here because you don't need to separate the caliper from the bracket we just need to get the bracket bolts off unless you're replacing your brake pads everything same time and this could be a little loud my impacts pretty loud that's 21 millimeter is what it is most cars are all metric anymore this might be loud there's one there's two and hold on to the caliper so it doesn't fall off and break your brake line now I'm gonna use a caliper hook right here I must slide it right in there we're gonna hang it up here on the spring try not mess your guys's light up too much just like it take the rotor off and basically that's it for that right there get your tie rod off of here now let me stop real quick and say if you don't have air and you're doing this by hand which I don't think would be doing it by hand but just in case if you have to breaking any ball joints you know nuts free you're gonna want to keep this on if you're doing it by hand if you're using a wrench because otherwise it's going it's gonna help you you know lock it in place so you can get those apart otherwise it's gonna spin on you when you try to take it off but this one is a 21 millimeter as well you're gonna get up here and hit okay lay your not aside what you're gonna do what you're gonna do is not hit the bolt right here you're gonna hit the knuckle right where to attach this it's gonna take several pops probably there we go tie rod is off so the next thing you want to do is you want to get your axle nut off of here this is a 36 millimeter on the Jeep Grand Cherokee most cars are about a 36 millimeter excellent uh tis off and then why you're defending and looking at the hub and try to change the camera on you guys here you're gonna have to take this ABS wire off you do not need to disconnect it from the back of the knuckle where it goes into the actually from the hub I'm sorry on this on this model you don't need to disconnect it from the hub what you need to do is you just follow it up follow your abs wire up see it goes down right right there but then it poops back up and then it goes right there and right there on the Jeep is where it connects so I'm gonna go ahead and get that we're gonna take that off whipped up with the knuckle okay so now we need to get the upper ball joint loose and it looks like about an 18 guess II guess it's an 18 [Music] that's the shop phone it's not my phone now I'm going to use a universal online when I do this that way I can get in there with an impact and not have to do it by hand you know using a wrench or ratchet just a little universal right here maybe Buckhorn will I think this one it might has a lock on it so you can't pull it off the sake can't come off and take your eye out and break your nose or knock your teeth out and get a fair and we're gonna hit with the impact sometimes the whole ball joint spins if it does I'll show you how we take care of that it did not so now we need to do we need to separate the upper part of the knuckle from the ball joint but before we do that actually we can go ahead and do that I gotta move the light though for you guys cuz I've gotta smack this thing now what I like to do [Music] nothing's gonna come apart nothing's gonna happen but it can't fly up on you you neither scare the crap out of you or something I like to get a pry bar on whatever I can get it on kind of pull down on it there you go upper ball joint is free okay so now we need to get the lower ball joint nut off and it looks like a 21 it is a 21 lower ball joint is free of it now you got to do the same thing that we did a minute ago now this is where you have to be careful in fact I won't put my axle nut back on so that this knuckle doesn't fall down on me and I normally wouldn't do it at this height but you I want you guys to see this we're gonna smack it right here hang on my wife just shut up all right back to work we go unfortunately my belly is full how I'm tired don't even want to finish this but we got to Casey's pizza if you guys have a Casey's general store near here they got the best pizza in my opinion but anyways let's get back to uh what we need to do here we're gonna smack right here on the knuckle until that ball joint pops down another thing you can do is you can actually use an air hammer and you can hit right here to push it up you got to be careful because you don't want a mushroom the head of this cuz it's not gonna come out then you'll have to cut it off I've done that so let's see if we can smack it a few times I don't like smacking aluminum too much cuz you can split it and crack it but hopefully it'll come free as easy as the top one did you're just gonna smack right here if I hit the threads no big deal I'm not gonna be reusing it there we go now what you want to do is take your excellent know it off and that's only on there just just to make sure it doesn't fall out on you you're gonna push the axle through first you see if I can get this sorry you guys / I don't wanna steer I mean you're gonna push the axle through with your hand and as you do that kind of wiggle it down turn out the knuckle is off here's the knuckle so what I want to do from here is I got to do a lower ball joint I'm gonna do the lower ball joint first I want to put that accent right now you know it's in my way no matter what I do so I just take a cord just enough to get it up out of my way actually that's not even gonna work on this car because I'm hitting the strip so we're gonna have to work around it which isn't gonna be a big ordeal I don't think what we want to do now is we're gonna have to get this lower ball joint out we're gonna have to use a air hammer so I want to show you guys this has actually never been done it's got hundred seventy thousand on it it's got the original bulbs when it's in it the reason we know that's because they are stamped in right there that's a stamp all right right there as another stamp so what we got to do is I use the care handler which is going to be loud I know for sure you guys probably Melissa so what am i used let me just show you what an air hamper looks like case you don't know this is my air hammer that I got I got a chisel bit on the end of it you guys ohh over the place so what we want to do is we want to get that out now hard to do it's kind of noisy just like that you just want to fold it over and you want to do the same thing on this side [Music] just like that and what I like to do is like to go around the whole ball joint just a little bit just real quick real quick bursts some cars have snap rings from the factory so you don't have to worry about doing this Chrysler and GM's seem to stamp them in it's a good time to wear safety goggles okay I'll get tool set up my ball joint tool does not want to fit over the boot for the ball joint right here and I can't I don't have any word for the light so I'm gonna turn the light off what I'm gonna do is I take it loose take a screwdriver we're just gonna take the boot off just like that now my cup should fit in there nope not that one yeah one's a little too big have a different cut I might have to use my tool on this one it looks like no no that might work let's give it a shot we're going to be using the snap-on we're gonna use this bit which is for forcing the ball joint out right here and we're gonna have the cup down here hopefully this goes well otherwise we're gonna have to switch to my tool it's accidents right in my way nothing's going the way I wanted to that axe will get out of my way I'll be good here we go sorry I just kicked you guys there's the ball join your new ball joint is going to be obviously the bald one and then you've got a new snap ring you got your castle nut and washer for the castle nut and you got your Cotter key cotter pin or gonna call it and then you got your greaser for the with a lower ball joint or pull the ball joint out little balls on both of these I bought aren't reasonable right here I'm up drive works from Advance Auto Parts we use these all the time at work we've had no problems no complaints and they are more than half of movemove is $47 I think and the lowers were 21 and the uppers were only 15 through Drive works and they're greasable I can keep them green and we'd like I said we use them at work all the time never had any issues out of them once the ball joints out you don't want to put the ball joint in here with this rust and everything that's inside here so get some sandpaper this is some Emery cloth and I just go around I just do a quick buff to get any burrs or anything like that off you really don't want to use a power tool to do this you don't want to make the hole smaller than what it needs to because then the ball joint won't stay in there tight okay and then from there put some grease on it will blob a grease here on my hand you can never use too much grease it just helps it go back together that much easier it doesn't make a little bit of mess on your hands but it's worth it and trying to put it in dry as you can see these have guess I should just show this before I put the grease on there's like little splines that's what's gonna bite into the metal when you shove it in there when you press it in so now we need to we forced it down now we need to force it up so this this boot is actually going to be in my way so I'm gonna have to remove this boot should did that before I showed you guys greasing it dummy don't get up in there in that Ridge you'll pop that boot off just like that now I gotta figure out what I need to put it back in let me show you something important when you go to put the ball joint in your cup that you're gonna be reusing cuz see I take the I had to take that boot off because I need to push it in you don't need to push up and I can't use that rubber and split it obviously so what you have to remember see that right there see if I can show you instead of the ball joint sticking out you have to make sure you get something like that so you don't push on that stud push on that stud you're gonna ruin his ball joint speaking from experience you know as mechanics we do stuff fast I mean that's the way that we were taught anybody's mechanics taught you know time is money and we do job as fast as we can sometimes you're getting too big of a hurry and you make mistakes so just make sure you take your time pay attention what you're doing you're using a press like this or using a press like the other one that I showed you just make sure you pay attention to what you're doing we're gonna need a receiving cup right here you have to make sure it fits over the top of the ball joint which it does it's gonna go right here on top every cell in my hands it may impact down here now on some ball joints tells you inboard and outboard this one does not have an inboard or outboard symbol on it anywhere so I can put it in any direction that I want and the direction I really want is I want to make sure my Cotter key is side-to-side the only thing that really matters to me okay this thing like I said it's freaking heavy it is hard to hold up here for any amount of time this snap on press [Music] and make sure when you start it in you start it in straight okay now we just got to use the impact we're gonna push that ball joint up in there compressor just turned on so that's what you're hearing the new ball joint is in as you can see I made it you see that hole right there probably can't look now we need to put the snap ring on wallah right here open it up one end get the other one in and you can kind of push it down in place [Music] I don't know why I'm shaking so bad what I like to do let's go around to guys I like to come in backside make sure it all the way handed down we have to spend this one all the way around because it doesn't seem like it's going in the groove on the back of it and I'd rather be safe than sorry so I'll just do it now while I see it that smack it again hopefully not smack you guys okay snap bring his in now while you're here it's a good time put your grease zerk in it's hard to do watch put it back together [Music] like that and you want to put it where somewhere where you can get through well 10 millimeter wrench that need to be really tight just enough to not come free like the put it right there have it right there like that I know I can get my grease gun in here when it's all put back together speaking of grease gun this is a good time to make sure because I have gotten mini ball joints that the grease zerk doesn't work this is a good time to make sure it works so I'm gonna do that [Music] [Music] and you'll know immediately if it works or not yes it does work I brought my grease gonna come home to my boss I like good grease I'm gonna raise it up so you guys can hopefully see bottom of the ball joint now this is the this is a difficult part to me on these ball joints that you have to take the boot off of and I wish I'd give you guys better light you see if I do it like this hopefully that's better a little bit better it's hard to get the bushings on without splitting them when you have to take those boots off boots not bushings them when you have take the boots off to put it in the next question is what I do with frustrate all right done oh right there something up on the lift arm sometimes you can get lucky and it'll go right back on haha like that anyway right back on that is awesome that never happens trust me we're about halfway there now we need to get the upper ball joint out and so we're gonna we're gonna push it up this way cuz that's how it comes out now you're gonna notice it's gonna have to come back in the same way that comes out so it's gotta come down you can't get that ball joint press up here so you have to kind of do it backwards but it works on this one here we gotta get this boot off to push it out so just take your screwdriver get up underneath this metal tab metal clip not tab and kind of work its way around the ball joint these things are such a pain in the butt and they're really a pain too but when you go to put them back on - so that's how you get that off now this one here is a little tricky because you see how long this stud is and we need to hit right here to force it out you need a cup big enough to receive the ball joint right there as you can see it might actually be too big we're gonna find out you're a minute so what I'm gonna be forced to do don't be forced to put this one on the press and just kind of set this one on top of it it doesn't lock into it this does not happen very often but sometimes you have to just do whatever you got to do to make something work that's okay Venus thing's heavy you know use ass little bit smaller one I do not like doing it like this but I don't always like doing everything that I have to do on cars okay so the press is on it's set up now there's not a lot of room at the bottom here so hopefully I get my impact on hey ball joint is a try to not get my toes smashed working backwards here voila so I changed the light here you guys may not even see me get the ball joint out I just realized my light was over here so I was probably blocking it but we got the grease in there it's cleaned out I used Emery cloth to put it back in on this model you do not have to remove that metal clip that goes all the way around some some cars you do it's a pain abut but I got lucky on this one cuz see it goes right through the bushing goes through no big deal at all now here's the important part is you so you're going to be using the ball joint backwards so you're gonna be forcing up and to the control arm but it's gonna be pulling the ball joint down the top of the the press is gonna pull the ball joint down but you have to make sure you do not force into your stud because if you if you force into your stud I'm telling you it pushes that stud right up through that ball joint breaks it now you go buy another ball joint because they won't warranty that so what I'm gonna try to do is I'm gonna use the top of the press to push the ball joint and I think because it looks like it'll fit good you see if I was smaller or larger I mean actually that'll probably work better so we're just gonna we're gonna go that route right there my lights probably in the video now we have to make sure this is very very important that you have something that'll fit like right there that's gonna work that way I'm not going to get into my stuff my stud is way up there you gotta remember it's gonna come down you know that much so you have to give yourself plenty of room plenty of wiggle room and sometimes it doesn't fit the way you want it to either so let's try like this that'd work [Music] so as you can see it looks like I'm forcing the ball joint up but I'm not alright here we go let's pull that sucker down ooh who excells right my wig hang on that people having an issue here can't get on it for some reason oh yeah uh okay here we go hopefully when I edit this video I remember to turn the volume down when I use the impact so it's not really loud for you guys here we go now we got put snapper in just like the other side [Music] or just like the bottom I should say this one you have to squeeze quite a bit it's got to get around the boot you don't want to rip your boot [Music] come on it in there betty has one now I can get it to where I can smack of the screwdriver I should be able to see with my hand sure there we go and I'll go put it back in here just make sure it's in there good it is squeeze them together snap ring is in now we're gonna put the grease zerk in about took my foot off now used to having this much stuff around me when I'm working mixer I need to get a swivel for this grease gun the way that's the cheapy it's not one you hold the trigger down and the grease comes out quickly it's a cheap Ephraim Menards it's one shot yes it takes grease I can see the the boot going down and that's it now I'll come back in a minute I need to put my sway bar link you must waive our bushing on this side and then I'll come back and show you guys how to reinstall which is basically reverse of removal but I'll show you guys my butt but it's in a very hard time getting out of here I got my new sway bar link on which you really can't tell because I put some undercoat on everything I've got my new bushings you'll see that there they're blue they're moved trust me they're blue they're at their scraper bushing on this side got that on a thumb put the knuckle on sweating my butt off I mean that just just kick my butt so basically just remove reverse of removal if your knuckle up make sure your abs wire is not behind it make sure it's in front of it don't slip it on the bowl joint and the axle at the same time well something like that make sure you put your washer on and your castle nut okay you don't want to tighten that down to get the upper on now the upper you're gonna need a pry bar [Music] and I'm sweating like a stuck pig okay sure you put your washer on sometimes it's not easy to do one-handed I'm gonna use my chin to hold it there we go washers on that's time to tighten down probably not the same size as yet it's same size as factory oh hey hi I'm wore out I'm sweating not think that quick stir it was gonna be that hard to put in man hit whoever got killed me now oh that's perfect first time my hole is lined up then put my Cotter key in now here's how I like to do the powder keys I like to put them in like that straight and then I just pull one down and I try to wrap it all the way around just like that so now when you put spawn it is nice having to live this is probably a 21 or 22 see if I can give you guys a better view this time probably too much like at work 20 long as the rest falls off there you go the whole lines up same thing and I put it in with a long end down on the bottom pull it around just like that that's it yeah that's all it takes to put that on we're just gonna do this in real time what the heck you lower back down I'll put our axle nut on you guys can't see what I'm doing make sure you start that axle note on by hand first I just did don't want to cross thread there let's torque the factory spec their entire rod now sometimes these want to spin on you when you go to put it back in when they're you they're new they're pretty stout they usually hold themselves yeah I got lucky okay now real quick I want to grease them have to take a break after this one where I go do the other side ergo I don't like using this red high temperature grease I'll show you doing the bottom wanna show you doing that one [Music] to raise you guys now you can see the boots kind of see that right there we're gonna fill it up just to where it starts to expand I'm hopefully let's see can you guys see that no of course not about that yeah good enough get my gun on first where I start putting grease in there we go [Music] there see I started to expand it's full of grease but you want to put too much grease in that your rupture the boot wise you'd be doing this job again soon just enough and the night breeze them every will oh sorry about that it's got grease all over my tripod tell me when you're tired you do stupid things so now what I want to do is I want to roll my ABS wire back in so I'm gonna put it back in you guys are looking to meeting up car you put it back in all of its original holders try to not break them when you take them out that way your EPS wires not gonna get caught down in the rotor or something to where it rubs through [Music] I'll use Detroit axle quick struts they were off Amazon they were cheap came with rear shocks and struts for one hundred and ninety dollars I think it goes everything is looking good time for a rotor anybody turn this thing the rotor I'm gonna take an oversized knit put it over hold that rotor in place make sure my backing plates not touching otherwise we're gonna have noise and we drive it now my outer pad started to fall out and I didn't want to hit the floor so I took it out hope I can put it back in oh yes without having to take your calbro bracket [Music] and I'm like pouring sweat Oh turn away for one second hold on there [Music] [Music] there it is Bethlem of course we need a swim in the end was a 21 on it I didn't do [Music] right to the end of the video and I can't time to thank of my heart for tool there you go this side is done I just go on the other side and do the reverse route reverse what I just did it here you everything I just did here over there I'm not gonna film any of that my car is empty before I start you know here is one of the old bulging ones this is the upper ball joint right here that's the revolution which I didn't show you guys doing I didn't show you guys how to test ball joints I probably should have how to even think about it I tested him myself when I came in when I did these brakes that video I did the brakes what you do is you have the car on the ground you put a jack under the control arm Jack the control arm up enough that you can get a pry bar underneath the tire pull with it with a pry bar up and down tire and then watch the ball joints have somebody anything watch the ball joints in it they're moving then you know your ball joints are bad you guys have to think a load off the ball joint to check it you can't check it like this when it's in the air because of the load on the ball joint the ball joints aren't that hard to do they are time-consuming if it's something that you're not comfortable with doing you know heavy duty stuff I wouldn't do it I probably take it to a professional like a shop like here where I work but if it's something that you're willing to tackle if you have the right tools the job isn't that hard now I'm sweating my butt off because the stupid quick strut bought me really bad ball joints like I said are hard I hope this video helped you guys out if you're planning on doing ball joints this is the first video I've done on ball joints and I think it went pretty well a few mishaps here and there my wife caught us in the middle of doing something had to eat lunch but other than that it turned out well this steering's gonna be good and tight now I mean we could kind of hear a thump every now and then that's one of the reasons I checked them when I did the brakes so this sides done the only thing I haven't done to it is I didn't replace any control arm bushings or the tie rod or inter tire because everything is tight so this is basically a rebuilt suspension for the most part and ever the steering wheel should be good and tight I won't need an alignment because I'm do anything that would mess with the alignment sometimes when you do quick struts it can messy line it up so just check your steering wheel before you do it and then after you know if it's off just a little bit and you know you're gonna have to go get an alignment but hopefully I won't have to do that so like I said I hope you guys enjoyed the video hope it helped you guys if it did give me a thumbs up hit that subscribe button while you're down there we do detailing videos we do repair videos anything that comes to my mind really tool reviews product reviews stuff like that and we will just see you next time

Channel: FAB Automotive Detailing

Views: 28,133

Keywords: Jeep, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Grand Cherokee Ball Joints, How to replace Ball joints, Ball joints, FAB Automotive Detailing, Snap-On, Ingersoll Rand, Tools, Ball Joint Removal Tool, Ball Joint Tools, Jeep Suspension, How to Remove Ball Joints, Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, Powerbuilt, Powerbuilt Ball Joint Tool, Snapon Ball Joint Tool, Snapon Ball Joint Press BJP1

Id: ufIUN6ZyeXw

Length: 46min 53sec (2813 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 07 2018