Pressing front control arm bushings & ball joints For the guys who have pressed in their own ball joints and lower control arm bushings, was it enough of a PITA that if you had to do it over again you'd have a shop press them? I've thought about using a ball joint press to do the bushings and the ball joints, but have heard a few nightmare stories about getting the things to go in straight. Seems like the going rate for a shop to do these is $15 a bushing/joint, which works out to $90. How much trouble is it to do it yourself? |
I've done it a few times. A ball joint press costs about $100, or you can rent one for free from autozone. I bought one just because it feels damn nice to have one laying around, you can also press control arm bushings and u-joints with them. The trick i've found is to not even bother trying to run the press by hand. Just grab a 1/2" impact gun, put an impact deepwell socket on it (13/16 i believe...) and just crank on the press for a second or two. VERY IMPORTANT: then get a hammer and hit the press screw, then hit it more with the impact gun, repeat until it's off. You could do it by hand, but it's a pain, just be sure to drive the screw in with a hammer every now and then, it's probably the most key thing to do. I've also known a few people who would just slam the old ball joint out with a hammer, and then use a piece of wood to hammer the new one in so they dont damage it. |
Re: Pressing front control arm bushings & ball joints Originally posted by Brett H. - 89GTA Seems like the going rate for a shop to do these is $15 a bushing/joint, which works out to $90. How much trouble is it to do it yourself? I have a small, hand ball joint press and attempted to use it to remove the bushings. It couldn't budge them and all I did was waste time. |
i've used a standard hydrolic press and a ball joint press. either way it's no big deal to do. |
Originally posted by RJR99SS I've done it a few times. A ball joint press costs about $100, or you can rent one for free from autozone. I bought one just because it feels damn nice to have one laying around, you can also press control arm bushings and u-joints with them. The trick i've found is to not even bother trying to run the press by hand. Just grab a 1/2" impact gun, put an impact deepwell socket on it (13/16 i believe...) and just crank on the press for a second or two. VERY IMPORTANT: then get a hammer and hit the press screw, then hit it more with the impact gun, repeat until it's off. You could do it by hand, but it's a pain, just be sure to drive the screw in with a hammer every now and then, it's probably the most key thing to do. I've also known a few people who would just slam the old ball joint out with a hammer, and then use a piece of wood to hammer the new one in so they dont damage it. |
i use moly on my puller/press threads, never had a problem. also use good tools, mostly snap on, and again never a problem. |
Yeah, the key is to lubricate the threads. I use an otc press and i've never had a problem with it. The snap on press costs about $400, and the otc one about $100. |
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