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.

 

$15 each sounds a bit steep. My local machine shop charged me $6 each. That includes removing the old parts and installing the new ones. For $36 it was worth it to let the shop do it. I dropped off the parts and picked them up an hour later.

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.

 

Did using the impact gun mess up the threads on the press screw?

 

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.