Ball Joint Replacement Help/question

[hoorders]

Howdy everyone,

 

My 2000 silvy needs a drivers side uper ball joint. I went to the dealer and they will only replace the entire upper control which includes the ball joint.....lots of $$$. I did some searching on ebay and looks like there are replacement ball joints.....the current ball joint looks like its pressed in with no rivits or anything holding it.....the replacement ones ive found on ebay come with a retaining 'c' clip that holds them in place.....maybe mine also has the 'c' clip but I didnt look close enough.

 

Has anyone chaged out their upper ball joints?......any guidance would be much appreciated.

[CapitalTruck]

If I were doing it I would replace the whole control arm, but I'm perhaps overly anal. You can probably get a lower price on the control arm at www.oehq.com. I checked and they have new ACDelco upper and lower control arms for the low 200s.

[dmax0305]

I replaced all ball joints on the front of my 03 2500hd when I rebuilt it from a hard front end impact because of busted grease boots. They are not hard to do and the local parts stores do carry the ball joints seperately. I have not had any promblems with mine. I do believe the uppers have a snap ring under the control arm. Been a few years since I did it. You will need to press the ball joint in and out and those sh*tty ball joint c-clamp press tools you can get at the parts stores will not work. I used my 20 ton press to do it but a decent 10 ton will work. You dont need a torsion bar unloading tool. Just put a jack under the lower ball joint and jack it up until you can reach the top ball joint when reconnecting everything. For the most part they sell control arms with ball joints because it is more profitable and simplifies the parts inventory required. They basically charge you a similar price for the new arm as it would cost you to have it renewed considering you are paying labor. It takes them 30 seconds to press a joint while it takes 30 min at 75/hr for a shop to change. That's money in there pockets instead of the shop. In short, If you have the skills to do it yourself then do it. If you have to pay just go for the new arm and watch them trying to mark up the price. My local advance auto parts carries your complete arm for $100 or $65 for the joint itself. I would go for the new arm. On my hd its about $200 for the complete arm or $45 for the ball joint. Thats why I changed mine. It depends on the vehicle if its worth just putting the joint in it or not.

[kdm101]

The cost difference between the ball joint and the entire control arm is minimal ($10 or so) if you get aftermarket parts (dealer would be way too expensive). If you do the work yourself (it's not that hard - I needed a torch to heat the spindle/knuckle and a BFH to knock the ball joint stud out.

 

If you're doing the uppers, you might as well do the lower too - those are cold riveted in and must be drilled out. The replacements come with bolts.