UCA/UBJ replacement.

[LibertyOrDeath]

Tomorrow afternoon I have 2 hours to make an emergency repair to replace my broken Upper Ball Joint. Anyone have a link to a really good how to and a list of all tools required? My replacement UBJ is in a UCA I got from someone here, is a UCA swap needed or can I take out the UBJ from my spare UCA?

Here is a picture of the carnage.

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[ridenby]

If your using stock UCA the ball joint is non replaceable. The driver/left side requires a long extension,24in.,and a flex coupler to get at the rear bolt.Do not recall the bolt size right now.

 

[DirtyKK]

you can get away with a basic tool set and just give the ball joint a couple good wacks with a hammer to remove it from the knuckle. have to do the entire uca for the ubj. hope youre doing it on the passenger side!

 

[LibertyOrDeath]

I am doing the right side. Drivers side will be done soon though but in my garage.

 

[long_tall_texan]

Passenger side is really easy. Shouldn't take more than 30-45 minutes even if you have never done it. Just make sure you have the right size metric socket for the 2 bolts that hold the arm in. 17 or 18 mm - can't remember exactly.

 

[bjs2063]

Was this an unexpected failure? Or were you doing something that caused it? Just curious.

Good luck with the repair.

 

[Porkchop]

Like Long Tall Texan said pull the wheel put a jack under the lower A arm wack that upper ball joint with a hammer (remove nut first) and pull the air box off to get at the A arm bolts. Getting an alignment after and waiting to do that most likly will take longer.

 

[LibertyOrDeath]

I saw grease on the ball joint about 12k miles ago. It was popping for the last three days but I didn't have time to diagnose the sound. I figured I could wait til Wednesday and take it to the shop. I wish I knew about the hammer about an hour before you posted, lol. I went to three places looking for a ball joint puller before I was told all I needed was a BFH. I went and grabbed my BFH and the old ball joint was out in 63 seconds of tapping.