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Tips and Tricks for Pressing Out Ball Joints?
- Thread starter gpalmer77
- Start date
An alignment is a must.There are some Ford ball joints you replace the whole upper control arm.1997 to 2003 F150s,the Crown Vics,Town Cars and Grand Marquises.Even the explorer and rangers.
yup^
Update: Both sides done, new ball joints pressed in and knuckles back on the truck with new camber adjusters, new rotors/bearings, pads and brake hoses and rebuilt calipers. New sway bar links too. Just need to replace the tie rods, and replace the rear brakes and lines.
3 out of the 4 ball joints in the knuckles were bad, loose in the socket bad. All three tie rod ball joints were shot too. Sway bar link bushings were cracked, one of them was completely missing.
Hoping this truck rolls like new by the end of the week.
those camber/caster cams may have to be changed yet again once you get the truck to the alignment shop... did lots of them over the 18 years I was an alignment guy.
back to doing tons of ford balljoints again as where I work has an abundance of E series vans... but we have to farm out the alignment portion.
I used to do lots of rangers and Exploders for ball joints when I was an alignment guy as well...
Crawled under the truack last night for a quick peek at everything..... the passenger side axle pivot bushing (for the driver side I-beam) is slightly out of the holder..... the shoulder is proud of where it should be sitting by about 1/4". The driver side bushing (passenger side I-beam) is harder to physically inspect because of the shape of the bracket itself. This is the one I believe to be suspect.
Now that everything else is tight, I can feel it more.... when I turn left and load up the front right wheel, the truck feels inherently unstable.... and I can now hear a binding kind of noise and feeling under my feet.... right where that bushing resides.... at least it feels that way.
What concerns me more is the state of the axle pivot brackets..... they are flaking apart in 1/8" thick chucks of rust. Looks like they are a straight bolt up installation onto the frame, just find it unbelievable how badly corroded this POS is underneath.
Any ideas on sourcing good axle pivot and radius arm bushings and brackets? My fallback position is stock parts from the dealer, I have the part numbers I need..... but I was wondering if going with poly bushings might be better in the long run.We intend to keep this truck for a long time as a family hauler and tow vehicle, so I want this truck to be tip-top. Energy suspension does not list an axle pivot bushing for the Excusrion 2WD, but I assume the E-250/F-250 Super Duty 2WD has the same set-up and they have a poly set for that.
Any ideas? Thanks.
Now that everything else is tight, I can feel it more.... when I turn left and load up the front right wheel, the truck feels inherently unstable.... and I can now hear a binding kind of noise and feeling under my feet.... right where that bushing resides.... at least it feels that way.
What concerns me more is the state of the axle pivot brackets..... they are flaking apart in 1/8" thick chucks of rust. Looks like they are a straight bolt up installation onto the frame, just find it unbelievable how badly corroded this POS is underneath.
Any ideas on sourcing good axle pivot and radius arm bushings and brackets? My fallback position is stock parts from the dealer, I have the part numbers I need..... but I was wondering if going with poly bushings might be better in the long run.We intend to keep this truck for a long time as a family hauler and tow vehicle, so I want this truck to be tip-top. Energy suspension does not list an axle pivot bushing for the Excusrion 2WD, but I assume the E-250/F-250 Super Duty 2WD has the same set-up and they have a poly set for that.
Any ideas? Thanks.
Looking at Energy's poly bushings, they utilize the factory bushing metal shell..... so I may not need to press the old bushings out...... just burn the rubber part out of the old shell and leave that metal sleeve in the I-beam. Thoughts? Who knows, maybe the old bushing will just fall out of the OEM shell.
UPDATE:
Almost done with the axle pivot/radius arm bushing install.
Radius arm bushings were a piece of cake, removed the bolt from the bushing and dropped the arm just below the bracket. Used the OTC press to push out the inner metal sleeve, at which point the screw from the press shreds up the old bushing nicely. Set fire to the old bushing, wait a few seconds and it is supple enough to push out, with a little resistance from it being stuck to the inside of the outer shell. Lube up the new poly bushings and they can be pushed in by hand, the inner sleeve needs a press or c-clamp. Jack the radius arm back up into the bracket, push/pull on the front wheel to line up horizontally and bolt back up.
Left axle pivot bushing, right side of truck, was okay too. I ordered the bracket ahead of time as the stock one was severely corroded. Dropped the axle far enough to get to the bushing, same procedure as before to get the bushing out. The stock axle pivot bushings have a metal reinforcement ring embedded into the rubber structure itself, hooking this out with a screwdriver made it a lot easier to push the bushing out when it was warm from the fire.
Right axle pivot, left side of truck, much harder. The bushing bolt would not come out. I took the head of the bolt off with an angle grinder, and used the nut to try and pull it out.... no dice. Tried to grind the bolt back inside the holes off the bracket so it would drop out, but in the end, it proved impossible without ruining the holes. Made the call to replace the bracket, and cut it off the truck with the grinder. When I pressed the sleeve and bolt out of the bushing, you could see how the bolt had corroded and expanded the metal sleeve along its seam. No wonder it didn't want to come out. Bracket is on order, just needs to be bolted up when it arrives and I'll get this POS rolling again. ;-)
This job has not been cheap....... better keep it for a while.
Almost done with the axle pivot/radius arm bushing install.
Radius arm bushings were a piece of cake, removed the bolt from the bushing and dropped the arm just below the bracket. Used the OTC press to push out the inner metal sleeve, at which point the screw from the press shreds up the old bushing nicely. Set fire to the old bushing, wait a few seconds and it is supple enough to push out, with a little resistance from it being stuck to the inside of the outer shell. Lube up the new poly bushings and they can be pushed in by hand, the inner sleeve needs a press or c-clamp. Jack the radius arm back up into the bracket, push/pull on the front wheel to line up horizontally and bolt back up.
Left axle pivot bushing, right side of truck, was okay too. I ordered the bracket ahead of time as the stock one was severely corroded. Dropped the axle far enough to get to the bushing, same procedure as before to get the bushing out. The stock axle pivot bushings have a metal reinforcement ring embedded into the rubber structure itself, hooking this out with a screwdriver made it a lot easier to push the bushing out when it was warm from the fire.
Right axle pivot, left side of truck, much harder. The bushing bolt would not come out. I took the head of the bolt off with an angle grinder, and used the nut to try and pull it out.... no dice. Tried to grind the bolt back inside the holes off the bracket so it would drop out, but in the end, it proved impossible without ruining the holes. Made the call to replace the bracket, and cut it off the truck with the grinder. When I pressed the sleeve and bolt out of the bushing, you could see how the bolt had corroded and expanded the metal sleeve along its seam. No wonder it didn't want to come out. Bracket is on order, just needs to be bolted up when it arrives and I'll get this POS rolling again. ;-)
This job has not been cheap....... better keep it for a while.