Nice work . I used to use the pickle fork to separate ball joints and struggled as you did . I would advise striking the knuckle with a hammer or small sledge instead . Since switching to that method I have never spent more than a minute on getting parts separated , and I live in the rust belt . Try it and you wont go back to using the fork .
Smacking the knuckle is great advice and something I usually do, but I really couldn't get a whack at it with the rotor on. It would have been the next step had the pickle fork failed me.
Nice video, real-time real problems :P. im surprised how easy all the bolts came off, in canada you'd have to steel brush the threads and wd-40 it overnight to get em off. cheers
Thanks for the upload bro. Its helpful. Make some "fagens brew", 50% Acetone and 50% ATF, works better than any penetrating oil, drench everything for a week or two before you dig in. Get some assorting jack handles/ pipes etc to stick on the end of your ratchets and wrenches, Mr Leverage makes life so much easier.
I use that mix when I get something really rusty. It's not usual to find rust that heavy in Texas though. This particular truck was just neglected and beat on, which made everything a nightmare.
Wheel comes off , then caliper . Use a big c clamp to depress the cylinder in caliper to release brakes off rotor. Hang out of the way with wire. Next place jack under lower arm and jack it up to where the upper arm mount surface is parallel to the ground. Then loosen castle nut and leave on the threads. Use pickle fork between ball joint stud and top of steering knuckle. If that doesn't work take a sledge 4 lb and put on one side of steering knuckle and hit other side with another hammer a few good whacks will do it. The stud will shock loose and pop out. Separate stud from knuckle and ur basically done if u are installing already joined ball joint and upper arm assembly. If not just drill out rivets with a power drill multi speed . Makes life so much easier. And punch them out with a punch. Then bolt new ball joint in. Makes sure the upper arm is pretty much parallel to the ground or str8 kinda level or level. I just had to put a ball joint I took out yesterday back in it was still good the boot didn't hold much grease anymore. But the new style of garbage ball joints they have now are unacceptable quality and design. They have no retaining clips or rings on the dust boot anymore. They don't seal and will not keep out water dust or rocks and dirt. Complete garbage. Old ball joint still better quality than a new ball joint so I put it right back in when I couldn't find any sealed boot ball joints.
a video i watched claimed you have to take the tie rod end off glad i didn't follow that advice gonna follow this and hope for the best one last question ive been told some aftermarket ones need the hole drilled out for the alignment bolt have you ran into this? and if so which brand. i bought to ready to go ac delco control arms to not run into that
The brake line being in the way isn’t really a dumb design from GM because it’s supposed to be ran underneath the upper control arm, basically whoever worked on this truck before you did it wrong. Although I’m not gonna lie these designs aren’t the best anyways. I had a lot of trouble getting my adjustment bolts out but this is a good detailed video a lot of people can learn from
That makes more sense, I couldn't figure out why GM would do something like that. Yeah. things can definitely require some bashing and WD40 to loosen up, especially on northern state vehicles.
I'm sure you're more than enough familiar with the GMT400 platform, this probably felt like a cakewalk since you've worked on these things so much. lol
I know exactly what the fuck happened that required this repair job to be performed: the 31" offroad tires. NONE of that equipment under there is made for a tire that size and weight, it's all stock. So when the ball joints went out, it's due to having to push ALL that weight of the tire around. The brakes will be next, and possibly the hubs and speed sensors, since they'll be under stress and the sensors won't be calibrated to the tire's size. The brakes and rotors will burn up, GMT400 trucks are already known for having ABS and caliper problems, but luckily this is BEFORE the god awful bullshit of '96 and newer. Those brakes need to be upgraded to a larger size relative to the tire, else they can't dissipate heat quickly enough and fry all the components, maybe even boil your brake fluid.
Strange that nut wouldnt come off after you jacked up the control arm a bit and leveled out, thats how I have to get mine off. Your right 100% completely idiotic design.
Thank you for taking the time to make this video. I was wondering, why did you replace the entire control arm and not just the ball joint? I only ever saw you show play in the ball joint, was the control arm bushing loose as well?
A arm bushings are usually worn out. Plus a lot of the time, the ball joint is either pressed or riveted in and it's far easier to replace the whole assembly.
And now the arm assembly with the ball joint attached is complete garbage. The boots on the ball joints no longer have retaining rings on the boots. They don't seal. U will get dust dirt and water in the new design . Complete Garbage. Never buy ball joints that don't have a good sealed boot on them.
@@matthewevans8469 I wasn't dissing his tutorial. I was stating that I just did ball joints on my truck and come to find that the quality of ball joints is out the window . Even the control arms have a garbage ball joint riveted to them now. He did a fine job in the video
Doing mine. First thing I did was pressure wash entire front suspension. I was soaking wet but was pleased with results.
Nice work . I used to use the pickle fork to separate ball joints and struggled as you did . I would advise striking the knuckle with a hammer or small sledge instead . Since switching to that method I have never spent more than a minute on getting parts separated , and I live in the rust belt . Try it and you wont go back to using the fork .
Smacking the knuckle is great advice and something I usually do, but I really couldn't get a whack at it with the rotor on. It would have been the next step had the pickle fork failed me.
Nice video, real-time real problems :P. im surprised how easy all the bolts came off, in canada you'd have to steel brush the threads and wd-40 it overnight to get em off. cheers
Thanks. Yeah, no rust to speak of here in Texas.
Aint that the truth ! And even then your guaranteed to break off at least half the bolts lol
Thanks for the upload bro. Its helpful. Make some "fagens brew", 50% Acetone and 50% ATF, works better than any penetrating oil, drench everything for a week or two before you dig in. Get some assorting jack handles/ pipes etc to stick on the end of your ratchets and wrenches, Mr Leverage makes life so much easier.
I use that mix when I get something really rusty. It's not usual to find rust that heavy in Texas though. This particular truck was just neglected and beat on, which made everything a nightmare.
Wheel comes off , then caliper . Use a big c clamp to depress the cylinder in caliper to release brakes off rotor. Hang out of the way with wire. Next place jack under lower arm and jack it up to where the upper arm mount surface is parallel to the ground. Then loosen castle nut and leave on the threads. Use pickle fork between ball joint stud and top of steering knuckle. If that doesn't work take a sledge 4 lb and put on one side of steering knuckle and hit other side with another hammer a few good whacks will do it. The stud will shock loose and pop out. Separate stud from knuckle and ur basically done if u are installing already joined ball joint and upper arm assembly. If not just drill out rivets with a power drill multi speed . Makes life so much easier. And punch them out with a punch. Then bolt new ball joint in. Makes sure the upper arm is pretty much parallel to the ground or str8 kinda level or level. I just had to put a ball joint I took out yesterday back in it was still good the boot didn't hold much grease anymore. But the new style of garbage ball joints they have now are unacceptable quality and design. They have no retaining clips or rings on the dust boot anymore. They don't seal and will not keep out water dust or rocks and dirt. Complete garbage. Old ball joint still better quality than a new ball joint so I put it right back in when I couldn't find any sealed boot ball joints.
He did it the hard way. Lol.
a video i watched claimed you have to take the tie rod end off glad i didn't follow that advice gonna follow this and hope for the best
one last question ive been told some aftermarket ones need the hole drilled out for the alignment bolt have you ran into this? and if so which brand. i bought to ready to go ac delco control arms to not run into that
The brake line being in the way isn’t really a dumb design from GM because it’s supposed to be ran underneath the upper control arm, basically whoever worked on this truck before you did it wrong.
Although I’m not gonna lie these designs aren’t the best anyways.
I had a lot of trouble getting my adjustment bolts out but this is a good detailed video a lot of people can learn from
That makes more sense, I couldn't figure out why GM would do something like that. Yeah. things can definitely require some bashing and WD40 to loosen up, especially on northern state vehicles.
Good video. Thank you much. Now to replace mine...next project
Always glad to help. Good luck with the project.
I'm sure you're more than enough familiar with the GMT400 platform, this probably felt like a cakewalk since you've worked on these things so much. lol
Thanks. This is a really well done, pleasant to watch video.
Glad you enjoyed. Thanks for watching.
@@316Autos How did you torque the castle nut on the ball joint?
@@Captain-.James.-T.-Kirk I never torque castle nuts, just tighten it down and put the cotter pin in to stop it from backing out.
I know exactly what the fuck happened that required this repair job to be performed: the 31" offroad tires. NONE of that equipment under there is made for a tire that size and weight, it's all stock. So when the ball joints went out, it's due to having to push ALL that weight of the tire around. The brakes will be next, and possibly the hubs and speed sensors, since they'll be under stress and the sensors won't be calibrated to the tire's size. The brakes and rotors will burn up, GMT400 trucks are already known for having ABS and caliper problems, but luckily this is BEFORE the god awful bullshit of '96 and newer. Those brakes need to be upgraded to a larger size relative to the tire, else they can't dissipate heat quickly enough and fry all the components, maybe even boil your brake fluid.
It's fine, the dude can obviously fix what wears out and it's not your truck
You can push CV axle in, to get the nut out
OUTSTANDING!
Strange that nut wouldnt come off after you jacked up the control arm a bit and leveled out, thats how I have to get mine off. Your right 100% completely idiotic design.
Thank you for taking the time to make this video. I was wondering, why did you replace the entire control arm and not just the ball joint? I only ever saw you show play in the ball joint, was the control arm bushing loose as well?
A arm bushings are usually worn out. Plus a lot of the time, the ball joint is either pressed or riveted in and it's far easier to replace the whole assembly.
And now the arm assembly with the ball joint attached is complete garbage. The boots on the ball joints no longer have retaining rings on the boots. They don't seal. U will get dust dirt and water in the new design . Complete Garbage. Never buy ball joints that don't have a good sealed boot on them.
@@jeremyvasquez9508 wow, you're a dick....the dudes just trying to give a good tutorial on how to repair the front end on obs trucks...
@@matthewevans8469 I wasn't dissing his tutorial. I was stating that I just did ball joints on my truck and come to find that the quality of ball joints is out the window . Even the control arms have a garbage ball joint riveted to them now. He did a fine job in the video
You're killing me, easier to take and move parts out of your way, then the control arms.
90 sub 2500 silverado does not have control arms