How to Fix a Bad Ball Joint

For safety's sake, replace worn ball joints in your vehicle.

The ball joints in a vehicle connect the control arm to the steering knuckle or column and hold the front suspension of the vehicle together. Depending on the type of front-end suspension system you have, you may have one or two ball joints --- one upper and one lower. When the ball joint wears down, the vehicle will not steer properly and you may hear clunky noises in the front end of the vehicle. When this happens, replace the ball joint as soon as possible because it could be dangerous to drive.

Things You'll Need

• Replacement Joints
• 8 mm hex head wrench
• 22 mm or 15/6-inch combination wrench
• Ball joint separator tool, also called a pickle fork
• Hammer
• Press
• Cutting torch
• Torque wrench

Instructions

Changing Ball Joints

1. 

   Remove the brake calipar when changing ball joints.

   Jack up the front end of the vehicle with a car jack and place blocks against the back wheels to keep them from moving.

2. Work on the inside of the tire with the bad ball joint. Work around the caliper and rotor. Remove the caliper and rotor if necessary, but this necessitates bleeding the brakes when replacing the ball joint.

3. Use a turkey baster to suck out the old brake fluid and clean the brake reservoir with a lint-free rag if bleeding of the brakes is necessary. Use a box wrench to loosen the bleeder bolt located at the right rear of the car. Use a clear piece of tubing and place one end of the tubing on the bolt and the other end of the tubing into a plastic jar. Place a spacer, such as a 1-by-4 piece of wood, under the pedal. Then replace the brake fluid with clean fluid into the reservoir and replace the cover.

4. Remove and support the brake caliper with a piece of wood to prevent damaging the brake line. If necessary with pressed ball joints, use a hammer to loosen the ball joint by placing the pickle fork between the steering knuckle and the ball joint. The knuckle moves freely to enable removal of the rotor. Remove the CV axle nut, ball joint bolt and detach the tie rod end and strut bolts.

5. Using the combination wrench, remove the cotter pin or the largest nut from the joint kingpin. Separate the joint from the knuckle mounted between the upper and lower ball joint.

6. Remove the ball joint. Use a press tool and hammer to ease out the ball joint. A press tool allows easier ball joint removal with pressed ball joints. Ball joints can rust, and a hammer will help remove the ball joint. Some ball joints screw in.

7. Guide the shank of the ball joint through the hole of the steering knuckle with threaded ball joints, and then place the new nut on the joint.

8. Use a cutting torch, air chisel or cold chisel to remove riveted ball joints, which are factory rivets with cap-shaped ends, to prevent excessive movement.

9. Install the new ball joint and torque using a torque wrench according to the specification indicated by your specific car make and model.

10. Replace the knuckle over the kingpin and torque the retaining nut.

11. Reassemble brakes and suspension.

Tips & Warnings

• Remove cotter pin from the upper nut and loosen it until two or three threads left in the nut. Insert the pickle fork through the upper ball joint boot and hit it with a hammer until it is tight.

• Don't allow tie rod ends to hang by the ends only; use a rope or bungee cord to hang the tie rod from the coils.

• A pickle tool may destroy the rubber boot around the ball joint. Make sure you have a replacement.

References

• Car Junky: How to Change Ball Joints
• Ford Truck: Fixing Squeaky Ball Joints
• Mobil Oil: DIY Ball Joints

Resources

• Article Joe: Understand the Maintenance and Repair Ball Joints