How hard is it to change the upper and lower balljoints on a 1977 Ford F150 Pickup?

Question

My truck is a 77, 4x4, and needsball joints bad, i have the new parts i just need to know how hard is it to change them. THanx

Answer 1

It isn't hard to change them out as long as you have a ball joint seperator bar. It looks similiar to a tuning fork (in music) but a separator has sloping forks. The most important thing is to have your truck on stable jack stands for safety. If you get into a bind, auto parts stores have Chilton maintenance manuals for all vehicles. The instructions are easy to follow and the manual has many photographs of the different repair sections as well.

Answer 2

Pretty hard if you have never changed a ball joint on this type of vehicle before. You will need a ball joint press, airtools / air compressor, big hammers, chiltons manual, and a grease gun. Or my sugestion is take it to a mechanic for about $300 per side he can do the job right, so you can save your self the aggervation of tearing up anything else like the lockouts, needle bearings, clips, and any other small parts related to the 4wd system, let alone making sure the brake rotor and wheel doesnt fall off while driving down the hiway. You will spend more money in tooling if you only need one vehicle fixed.

Answer 3

Ball joint's????On Ford truck?????who told you that?
King pin,that what is it.


REMOVE


Remove the spindle. Refer to Spindle/Service and Repair.
On a spindle with bronze bushings, drive the bushing out of the spindle with a tool that is slightly smaller than the spindle bore. If a tool is not available, carefully drive a smaller center punch between the bushing and the spindle, at the split side of the bushing. Collapse the bushing, and remove it from the spindle bore. Remove the second bushing in the same manner.
Clean the spindle bores thoroughly.
Position a new bushing in the spindle bore, with the open end of the grease groove of the bushing toward the axle. Drive the bronze bushing into the spindle with a driver that pilots in the bushing.
Install the remaining bushing in the same manner.
ream bronze bushings to 0.025-0.076 mm (0.001-0.003 in) larger than the diameter of a new spindle pin.
Clean all the metal shavings from bronze bushings after remaining, and coat the bushings and pin with C1AZ-19590-B (ESA-M1C75B) lubricant or equivalent prior to assembly.
INSTALL


Spindle, rotor, caliper and wheel assembly.

Answer 4

everything is easy on a ford. just need some time. what kind of setup do u have, just a simple jack, or u out in the cold. that always makes things harder. get u some of those stands, and get some wd-40 or something called "blaster" from local auto part store cause i know everything is rusted. if u got the patience and time and not in the cold it should be okay.

Answer 5

go to your local napa auto parts store and get a Chilton repair manual. if you do not have a napa near you here is a link to the website. http://www.napaonline.com/

Answer 6

you need a press to install them which run about 90 bucks