I need a lower ball joint replaced BADLY I've been trying to milk this thing till this winter when I was going to remove the motor and put it in my 89 XJ. was wondering who has time (maybe sunday) and the nessecary knowledge of how to replace these things. in 20+ years wrenching on cars never replaced one before.
send PM please
thanks
87_AMC_XJ
anyone? at least send me some pointers..... anything... I have never done one of these before
guess I will be giving my money to a mechanic for this. 
I have no clue about ball joints 
sorry brian - i haven't had to pull one out yet. i heard that you need a ball joint press though to get them out.
chris
Yep, its a PIA. We changed one out in the parking lot of the comfort inn at 2 in the morning. Thanks again to Elff, Artie and Ian.
Hey Brian
Sorry This has one gotten over looked I am soon going to be changing ball joints on the D44 I picked up so I'm reading associated write-ups.
Looks very straight forward but you will need to borrow a hand press to get the old ones out.
I'll try to find a few links on doing this job as relater to the Dana 30
Here is a few links
Looks like you need the right tools some PB Blaster
and a big hammer.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum…ht=ball+joint+replacement
http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech/balljoint.php
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum…78751&highlight=balljoint
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum…ghlight=dana30+ball+joint
If you buy a decent ball joint press they arent too terrible. They are a mother to get out though so i would suggest getting the biggest breaker bar you can find....and then maybe putting a pipe on the end of it. My ball joint press didnt have the right sleeve to fit over the joint so i had to use a big ass socket from a 1" drive socket set. Other than that, try and soak them with pb blaster for a day or two before trying to remove them.
thanks,
I talked to a mechanic at my work figureing since they work on equipment ALOT larger than My XJ...... he recommended just beat the thing out and back in using like a 5lb hand sledge hammer.
I will check out the links. its getting bad.. cant drive over 45mph without getten shaken up. I feel like a milkshake sometimes after stopping and getting my QT of milk every morning
I want to thank everyone for their input on this. after reading everything into changing a ball joint I decided for my sanity that it would be best and fork over some $$$$$$$ well come to find out
A- wasn't the lower right that was bad .... was lower left
B- upper joint was barely hanging in there and needed to be changed too.
the shop recommended that I replace the "drag link" which come to find out is more referred to as "center link" due to tie rod was in need of replacing. and to replace the steering dampener. well today I changed all that. "borrowed" center link off my 89 XJ and bought a new steering dampener.
I don't have as much shimmy now in the front as I had before but think now I need to align the wheels. gonna jack it up in the morning and get my wife to help hold the tape. 
hope this solves the shimmy issue.
if not then what?????????????????????????????????????????
hey there i am an alignment tech. i have had a few jeeps with shimmy problems, most caused by loose front end parts but have had one wrangler with a unfixable shimmy. every thing in the front was right we ended up puting a stronger aftermarket stabalizer on it which i dont think fixed the problem but insted hid the problem. if u cant fix the shimmy u may have a caster problem in the steering. let me know if u cant fix the problem i could probably help u out.
Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!
