Very informative video. When I wake up tomorrow I'm going to do my upper/lower ball joints and brake pads. I watched another video and I noticed they removed the whole strut and the sway bar linkages. I'm glad you showed it's possible to bypass those two steps. They did an upper only so maybe that's why they removed the strut & linkages. They needed more play.
@living in a desert I'm still not finished. Rain and cold + work has hampered me. I just had to come back and watch this video again to see what's the trick to the lower ball joint. If I get it off soon at least I will probably get one side put back together. I just got it out. The things that make a man happy. :):):)
Holy rust bucket! Man I’m glad I live in the south,those winters do a number on these trucks,my respect for you guys up north doing this stuff out in the cold,thank you so much for posting the procedure,I thought the lower where not rebuildable on this trucks,now I feel confident to do it myself. Thanks again.🍻
You got the coolest voice ever. Sounded like a narrator for documentaries or national geographies on PBS. I completely loss focus the ball joint removal and focus learning to speak like you.
Lololol PNP hilarious haha I was thinking the same thing that’s too funny 😂..and don’t take that as an insult buddy..I achieved this by moving the shock out of the way since I had to do work to the shock anyway..who the *%#$ makes non replacement, non greaseable ball joints r u kidding me?! GM has turned into trash don’t even get me going-they have more money than they know what to do with but r still greedy..trashy ball joints, junk cheap plastic and as a result my dash is cracked and now a piece fell out behind my pass airbag..trash..can’t believe u didn’t strip out the junk caliper bracket bolts like I somehow keep doing..caliper is trashed the bleeder just flaked apart and I wasn’t even touching that area lol I am a die hard GM truck guy but goodness..wait till u hafta replace the garbage oil cooler lines that’s a fun one..now just got a recall about the airbags but they don’t have the parts yet, I could’ve sworn tekata recalls took place a few years ago no clue why I’m just now getting a recall letter but maybe they can replace the disgusting dash while they’re at it
Helped a ton, thanks. Pretty easy repair, but removing the bad lower ball joint was accomplished by hammering it out in my case, the tool to press it out didn't have the correct spacers.
All went well!! But man those Rancho quick lift stunts sure are stiff!! Have to dial them down a bit.. did the lower and upper ball joints , tie rod ends , sway bar links and New struts
Good video, good commentary, overall very helpful. Only recommendation I have is to invest in some safety glasses especially using hammers and air tools.
Thanks. I didn't think you had to take the axle lose to remove the ball joint, like some videos show. Now I'm off to the parts place to pick up a pickle fork.
I got an estimate for upper and lower control arms, inner and outer tie rods, rear shocks and a few other odds and ends that was an obscenity so I'm going to take my time and do it myself.
@@TralfazConstruction Me too, that is what led me to tackle the job myself and this vide0. $1500 just to replace uppers and lowers w/ parts (that probably weren't ac delco OEM.) I'd hate to think what the dealer would have wanted for such a job. With a fill shop, this is a 2 hour job max.
@@toddswartzman8625 Yes, you have a horror story too. On the other side of my ordeal (I can recall it fondly now) I saved two-thirds of the shop's quote. I won't name any names but I'll never darken the doorway of that place again. Of course when _I_ tackled the repair it was when we were experiencing near-record cold weather. My stepson assisted me as did one of my younger brothers. My brother provided the deciding edge with his angle grinder because the upper arm bolts were hopelessly fused to the bushing sleeve. We also resorted to using a Sawzall in that instance. I knocked over a cup of hot coffee then forgot about it and the coffee froze two sockets to the ground. It turned out well. My vehicle passed inspection with flying colors so I was happy.
Just as a heads up. The shock/strut comes out very easily. There bolts up top and two on the bottom and it can be pulled out, nothing else needs to be removed. They're a bit heavy and awkward you might have to pry on something but overall pretty easy. Something to consider for clearance with those eccentric bolts.
The make of the lower rocker arm really makes this difficult to get the ball joint out. My kit is giving me hell on getting it back in. It's a little bigger than the ball joint so it's not fitting snug enough. All the other adapters are either too big or too small. But I have no choice but to make the closest onecwork.
The passenger side removal - that one bolt on the upper blocked by the spring: I just moved the spring out of the way by removing the bottom bolts for the shock, and loosening the top bolts until it had enough play to pull that front bolt out. No need for a spring compressor/spreader.
Great video, let's me know I can do it. You made a mistake, and put the wrong upper A arm on the wrong side. The original one has the thin side forward, and wide side rear. You install the new one made opposite.
I'm having trouble separating the upper ball joint from the spindle on my 2002 Silverado. The fork will not separate them. I hit it as hard as I can trying to separate it but it won't budge. Will I have to use a torch to remove it? Any info on this will be helpful to me. I beed to change this upper balljoint.
Make sure you have the fork in the spreader lined up so the post sticking out of that upper ball joint is between the forks. I had to hammer a bit on top of that wheel hub assembly to finally get it to let go.
When installing the lower you cut and changed because you appeared to have the same problem I am having of the upper installer being too small and blocking the ball joint what did you do to fix it?
@@KendorFarms 8:30. We wound up putting the lower installation cup and sleeve on a jack stand, put the weight of the truck on it. And then beat the Lower control arm with a 5lb hammer until it seated. The press was blocking like yours way. If you look at 8:30 you can see that you switched tools. The upper cup you were using was old and scratched up. The new one looked brand new lol
5 bolts and the whole strut will drop out the bottom and you pull it out from the top of control arm. Pretty easy and will make replacing the A-arm easier. Over all not bad. I have a 08 2wd. Found someone on craigslist that had OEM take off shocks and struts from a lift kit. This back in 14. They only had a few miles on them (drove from the dealer to the place that did the lift). Sold them to me for a song. I dropped the whole strut and replaced with the new 14 stuff. It is exactly the same.
So in order to do this do i need o jack up under lower a arm an then loosen all bolts i have everything loosen an off i just have 6 in lift an its a mother to get the bolts out of upper so i need to loosen the sway bar links correct an lower jack until i can mover the strut ??
Well go in the kitchen and make us a sandwich then. I'll take mine with extra cheese, more chips and no ice in my soda. Myself and just about every man that's worked on a car at home or in a pro shop does this. Oh put lettuce and tomato in my sandwich too. Double decker honey ham and smoked roast beef thanks.
OneBadDenali Yes they do come greased from the factory. It's also a good idea to grease it with a fitting that goes into the end of your grease gun and the tip looks like a syringe. It pokes through the rubber boot with minimal damage and lets you add some extra grease down the road.
Kendor Farms Thanks for the reply, I purchased the lower bj but it seemed as they didn't have grease in them and they don't have a fitting for grease, but you are correct they are pregreased. Also thanks for the video it was very helpful!
Hey what brand ball joint tool kit did you use to remove the lower ball joint I got one from.orielys but not fitting the big collar is to big and middle one is to small let me know thanks
+Michael Burchette It was just a generic brand or ball joint tool, just had a lot,of parts that kinda did everything and I’ve had good luck with it. Probably an overseas kit that didn’t have a name.
You have your dyed-in-the-wool gearheads, shade tree mechanics and those that do repairs themselves out of necessity. There's nothing as satisfying as performing a substantial repair by one's self.
Grind the rivets off with a die grinder as close to the surface as possible and use a punch to knock the rivets out its a pain and a stupid design thats gm for you always trying to save money on the customers expense
So I replaced mine and spent 3 hours on the passenger side why why why then realized I had. 3 inch lift I forgot lol so the spring lined right up with the bolt and couldn’t get the spring to flex enough had to loosen the strut/shock FYI anyone has Same issue
@@arrealhandymanservice4459 man this is the biggest mess ive delt with mo lift or garage doing it on gravel im literally gonna cut the bolts on the other side if there anything like the driver side its horrible i mean can i put the bolts back in the opposite way so next time its easier or no
Dustin Berry I don’t think so maybe they can’t do the alignment if it’s the other way just drop the strut from top and the bottom and leave it inside just to give you wiggle room oh and remove torsion bolts
Not good to let your caliper hang like that I've damaged a line doing that I hang em up so the line is loose you can use a buggy or some sort of hook or wire.
Hang the caliper by the hose not a good idea. Also before you tighten the upper control arm. You should have preloaded it before you tighten it up. Otherwise it will put tension on the bushings and prematurely fail.
You can remove the entire brake caliper and bracket all together as one piece, and for gods sake don't let it hang down on the brake hose!!! Strap it up with a bungee to some other part of the suspension out of the way.. Otherwise, a very useful video!! Thanks!
Yeah I lost all respect the moment the caliper was allowed to hang. I wouldn’t let a caliper hang even if it was on a Prius, let alone a full size truck.
Y, that seems pretty common on these sorts of videos - a box supports the whole thing nicely without getting in the way and putting all that weight on a brake line. I wanted to tie it up, but there isn't anything to hold onto that isn't in the way of the rest of the work.
Congrads. You lived .maybe you should go play power ball . With luck like that. O never hang parts on hose like that can cause it to fail just telling your viewer's with your luck not a problem it will last as long as you will.
Please vote YES on 22 it help provide more income to self-employed and independent contractors but less money to the greedy and scums state/city officials.
Ok I just started to watch and seen you don't use Jack stands . Wow you're faith in that China made Jack well I'm going to go make popcorn and then watch this . He'll if the Jack fails then maybe the other people watching this might use Jack stands. hay can you zoom out just in case it falls I'd hate to miss your legs kicking as your being crushed.I'm going to push play gl