jeepboyny

I have to replace the upper ball joint on my '90 4wd. I've looked at the fsm and it doesn't really say anywhere about supporting anything when removing the steering knuckle. Being that the upper arm is the one the torsion bar goes to..... is this thing spring loaded and going to take off like a missle when I loosen the ball joint, or can I remove the knuckle without doing anything to the torsion bars etc?

Thanks alot!! :bigclap:

mastacox

When you jack up the vehicle by the front cross member, your suspension will droop until you hit your bump stop. Once the upper control arm is on the bump stop, it won't move so you'll be able to disconnect the upper ball joint without any surprises.

jeepboyny

ok that sounds great. thanks!

CopenHagen_Smokeless

if thats under pressure its gunna shoot out like a rocket man

mastacox

There's nothing to be under pressure, since the upper control arm is resting on the upper (droop) bump stop. just hold the front cross member up with jack stands, take off the wheels, and unbolt the four little bolts holding the upper BJ in (you need to unbolt your shock too). Then, it should fall right out.

One thing: you're gonna need a heckuva puller to get that BJ out of the spindle (I custom-modified a craftsman puller to work). Plan on it being a PITA, and a BFH probably won't do it...

CopenHagen_Smokeless

if its a spring its gunna be under ressure no matter what

4Runner 4Play

Care to explain? The upper control arm will not be going anywhere if there is no load on it whatsoever.... i.e. resting on the bumpstops.... you know.... kinda what Mastacox said. Well exactly what he said to be precise.
Welcome to Yotatech btw. You'll find lots o help here!!
Cheers, Lee Hathaway

faubrunner64

its not a spring it is a torsion bar...
it works like a spring only in that it resists upward travel by twisting when the front suspension travels up after hitting a bump or something!, but when you allow the a-arm to drop any load that was once on the torsion bar is not gone because it does not have to resist the twisting motion of upward travel. so no there will be no load on thoes bars and youll be all good once you jack up your front end jeep boy!

86Original

A couple of tips from having replaced all of my balljoints recently and previously put on BJ spacers:

Before you jack up the front, put a small metal or wood block between the upper arm and the bumpstop that it will go against. This will allow you to get the wheel off without jacking quite as high, and give you more room to work.

To get the ball joint taper bolt out of the the steering knuckle, put some pressure on the taper bolt (with a bearing puller, tie-rod puller or pickle fork), then smack the cast portion of the knuckle that surrounds the taper bolt with a ballpeen or claw hammer (not too big) a couple of times. Your blow should be at a perpendicular to the bolt. This will loosen up the bond between the taper surfaces. With the load from the puller or fork, the ball joint will pop right out.

HTH

Bumpin' Yota

Dood no it is not! in order to get anything to spring anywhere you'd have to unbolt the whole uppercontrol arm and even then it wouldnt, as there would be no way in hell you could withdraw the bolts under tension.

This is NOT a springloaded IFS but rather a rubber torsion. Pull your front tire and go have a looksie

Just take off the tire, put the front end of the truck on jackstands, unbolt the shock, unbolt the four balljoint bolts and pull the BJ. Nothing is going to go anywhere even if you were to push the truck OFF of the jackstands or wail on it with an industrial jackhammer!

And yes I know this for a fact as I personally unbolted the right front ball joint on my truck in this manner when I changed out my CV on that side.....

Bumpin' Yota

so placing a big pickle fork btwn the steering knuckle and the balljoint's taper bolt and railing the holy hell out of it from a 10lb maul wont work like it does for outer tie rod ends? (im not concerned about damaging the BJ, since im going to replace them all on my own before the 50N service campain is done...)

86Original

You may get a headache from it if you do. These bolts use 19mm nuts instead of 17 mm nuts, so they are substantially more stout. I tried. (Didn't get my 8lb maul out tho'.) What I was suggesting is just a more delicate method of accomplishing the same thing. I just used a bearing puller to put tension on the taper bolt, then just whacked it a couple of times with a claw hammer (NOT a sledge!!). If you use a sledge, you could damage the spindle! If you use a sledge, you'll need to just tap it. A ballpeen or claw doesn't have enough mass to damage the spindle.

Bumpin' Yota

Good advice and good to know!

Is the lower ball joint just as tough to get off as well?

jeepboyny

i had no prob with a pickle fork....i put it in, one good whack and it broke loose. had it all done and back together in about a half hour. thanks for the help guys

86Original

It's the same size taper bolt. If your still running the original balljoint, it may be rusted to the knuckle on the top side. It took a couple of solid whacks on the top of the lower ball joint to get it out of the knuckle after getting the taper bolt out of the lower control arm and removing the four bolts that hold it into the knuckle. This was due to dirt & rust bonding the ball joint to the knuckle.
HTH