How To Change Ball Joints Without A Press

A lot of people seemed to doubt that you can do ball joints without a press. Well you can but you'll need a ball joint installation tool. I got mine from eBay and it cost me about £50.
I won't go into getting the arms off, that's the easy bit.
After removing the arms I started by grinding off the cap on the opposite side of the arm to the threaded taper.

After a bit of effort you'll start to see the bottom ball of the taper coming through. If you look in the pic above you can see two circles in the metal.

Turn the arm over and cut the taper off.

Then you can hammer the ball out, through the bottom.

Once you've knocked the taper out, it's time to get busy with the hacksaw. Taking care to only cut to the edge of the cup that's stuck in the arm. You basically want to cut out a slot so that it loosens the rest of the cup.

Turn it over and cut through the top part of the ball joint

It should then be possible to hammer it out without too much effort.

So the. You can line up your new one and with the installation tool you can gently press it in. It's fairly hard work to squeeze them in but perfectly doable with a bog standard socket driver

The. You're done and can get going on another
http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/111418895288
This is the tool. £39.00 and you can keep it to do it the next time they go.
nice one....
The more you do the faster you will get....

PSG and bluething like this.
Nice write-up
One thing that needs emphasizing is that the new ball joint has to be correctly aligned with the arm, the notches on the joint rim should line up with the cast protrusions on the outside of the arm.
If this isn't done correctly the joint can separate from the arm. I had this happen at about 45mph and I wouldn't care to repeat the experience!

art b and bluething like this.
That sounds fun! I'm not sure how that happened. I was told that the notches had to be lined up with the protrusions so that you can press them out in the future. I lined mine up anyways but having them fall out sounds like you had flipped spindles or something.
I think if they aren't lined up correctly it makes the joints operate outside they're designed angles, if you see what I mean. This puts extra stresses on the joint though our bus is also lowered which probably didn't help.
Yeah makes sense.. The hole that the taper pokes through is slotted so that would restrict movement
I tried this yesterday, it took 10 minutes to remove the first one
I used my grinder to cut the taper off to generate some heat which made getting the camber nut off easy. (Camber nut was stuck fast and tapped out easily on the open jaws of a vice after the heat was applied)
Looks like I'll be buying the tool kit above to put new joints back in.

bluething and art b like this.
I bought the tool kit, looks a nice piece of kit, heavier than I thought it would be. Lined everything up in the vice and tightened it down but the ball joint went in at a very slight angle. It won't sit square against the arm and I'm going to have to replace it. What did I do wrong?
uses the same tool
I thought I'd seen someone using the tool to remove the joints aswell...
no grinding but might need a compressor
Nice video, the only thing I did not do was to wire wheel and grease the arm.. I'll have another go.
This video also makes me think that this tool kit should be magnetic so it all sits together and stops the opps I dropped it again
Edit. This video also answered another question I'd ask on another thread "Are Lemforder ball joints any good".. The chap in the video was using/recommending them
No need for the tool to be magnetic. A roll of gaffer tape stops most of the fumbling around dropping the bits. Tape it together, get the tool over it hand tight then line it all up perfectly.
did you use the right rings and spacers on the tool. there shouldnt really be room for it to sit off square. Is it tightened all of the way down???
I used the spacer/tube that sat just off the rubber (without pinching it) and the heavy spacer/disc that sat neatly on the spacer.. The other spacer/disc didn't match up properly to the tube.. I also sat here in front of my computer with the tool kit and matched up the tools to the pictures at the start of this thread.. Just to be sure. The ball joint isn't sitting all the way down all the way round, Definitely not gone in square
can you post a pic? the tool usually pulls it all in straight in the end. it takes a fair bit of welly to do it... almost hernia inducing type force
Looks like one of the the lugs have bent on your new joints in the first pic but it shouldnt have as youve used the tube which is meant to drive it in square or near enough. The thread is quite coarse on the tool so there's some movement over the run out in the second pic is about right. I'll check mine tonight for you and see if the alignment of that thread is out
I posted the pic's without making a comment on purpose, just to see if you thought what I thought, The thread is screwed all the way in and is off to one side, not straight. I wandered if this is the reason for the ball joint to be pressed in at an angle?