1) Locate front wheels, they should be on the front of your truck. There are two, the one with bad ball joint is the one you want to locate.

*This assumes you have already read our best seller, "Ball Joint Diagnostics For Dummies", $1.99, sold at no bookstore I can think of.




2) Remove that shiny round thing that you always forget to take off before trying to remove the lug nuts. Three screws hold the shiny round thing on, you need the large screwdriver you can never find fom the last time you removed the shiny round thing.




3) Remove the tire. Don't forget to get the breaker bar, because the Walmart impact wrench you bought in April has about as much ***** as Michael Jackson.




4) Go back to Oreilly and get the Torx bits you forgot to get when you got the ball joints. On the way back, remember you paid $6.99 for the SINGLE 3/8" drive Torx bit for the pulleys last week at the same store, and you just bought a set of 10 for $5.99, 1/4" and 3/8" drive, and watch out for the squirrel.

Locate the wheel you were working again and using the correct bit of course, not the first one you guessed, remove the five screws that retain the automatic hub cover to the wheel assembly. Pause for a minute to ponder why the Haines manual shows the hub cover with three screws, as does Mitchell Online, then go ahead and remove all five after deciding that taking out just three will not allow removal of the cover.

3) At this point, photo illustration skips a step. This is what happens when you decide a job in the evening and end up working in the dark and get in a hurry. When you have removed the cover, repeatedly look at drawing and then the wheel assembly, locate a couple of clips, remove a series of washers and a spring retain by a clip on the axle.



*next installment 02/03/04

 

95 was a changeover year from the style of autohubs that have 5 cover screws to 3. The good news is that anyone with the 5 screw POS auto locking hubs does not need a conversion kit to switch to manuals. Which I suggest you spend the money on now as you already have the autos out. Bet ya a soda that yours don't lock the next time ya need em.

Adrianspeeder

 

Actually my auto hubs are working fine, never had a problem with them, although I know there's a problem with people engaging the transfer case at too high of a speed which apparently will damage the hub. Of course I service them regularly too, clean them regrease etc.

 

lol!!!

 

...

 

I should add at this point that the temperature the next day dropped almost 30 degrees from the day before, therefore my project was abbreviated to getting the ball joints replaced as fast as possible. Sorry.

couple of notes though, to loosen the joints from the arms, I soaked them with WD for about a half hour, put a gear puller on the upper stud and cranked it down, took a couple of quick whacks at the lower joint and they popped right out, both sides went pretty easy.

Also, the thrust washer kit for the hubs, even though the numbers were verified, contained a splined washer that did not match the splines on my hubs, so I had to reuse the orginals, which were actually OK, I just cracked one of the plastic washers, but they're sold only in complete kits.

One joint refused to come out of the knuckle, I finally put it on the press and had lunch. When I came back, it was loose. I looked at the ball joint press the parts store offered (with a deposit scheme that just sounded ridiculous) but I don't see it applying anymore pressure than my floor press and the floor press is easier to use. Plus, it's kind of cool working on something with tools that belonged to your father, I swear I could hear him yelling at me "my left dummy!!!"

 

???

 

BTW, two days of driving in and out of 4 X 4, the hubs are working fine.