Thanks Alex, I’ll keep that in mind.

 

Ball joint replacement is one of the very few things I would pay someone else to do. And I've been rebuilding engines and lots of other things automotive off and on for 48 years. Too many horror stories with ball joints on DIIs.

 

Yeah they're a pain in the ***. Mostly because of clearance issues, finding the right tool and spacers to fit, and the amount of muscle required. Actually had to grind one of the spacers at an angle to work the bottom one. Took me a good couple days just to do the one side that were bad because my disabled self bout broke my back.

And after all that work, bottom boot split at the seam immediately cuz they were cheap. The axle seal is also leaking and I'm gettin vibrations that I can only assume are from the knuckle and hub being a bit misaligned with the axle shaft, probably from collet on bottom being a little off adjustment, or maybe I got a bad hub. Just another fix to add to the never ending list.