How much of a pain in the butt is it to replace OEM upper and lower ball joints at home in the garage on a 71 Skylark?
Well, its pretty involved. You need to break the taper on the joints. That requires a "pickle fork" and a BFH. A good jack is a must to support the lower control arm. Besides the shock, the jack will be the only thing keeping the front spring in place. The lowers are pressed in. You'll need a ball joint press to take them out and pressed back in. The uppers were originally riveted in so you'll need to drill out the rivets. If your lucky, the uppers have already been replaced in the past and they're bolted in. Bottom line, it's what I call "bull work". Its a PITA and several hours of work. If your in your late 40's like me, you'll feel like you got run over by a truck for a couple days afterwards. If your going to do uppers, you might as well do the control arm bushings too while everything is apart. Its not that much more work. Why are you replacing all 4? If there isn't any movement in the joint, I'd just leave em be.
Do you have the Chassis Service Manual? If not, I highly recommend getting it. There are diagnostics in it for just about anything that you will encounter with your car. The method for checking ball joint wear is part of a page in that manual, and applies to many years' worth of automobiles (includes all GM) beside yours. I have rebuilt many a front end in my day. Now that I'm old (63), I'm a little sore after that exertion, whereas back in the day, I just felt like had done some work, but I was OK. I could do a complete front end rebuild on one of these critters in less than 8 hours, 30 YA (11 hours, flat rate). Those days are gone.
What part of Florida are you in?? I"m in Zephyrhills and I have a master ball joint press. If you're close enough, I could swing by and help you knock them out in no time. -Josh
Uppers usually don't go bad. How do you know you need them? I've taken spindles off of late 60s cars in the salvage yard and the uppers are still stiff. Anyway, It's easy, 2 hours tops.
Uppers usually don't go bad. How do you know you need them? I've taken spindles off of late 60s cars in the salvage yard and the uppers are still stiff. Anyway, It's easy, 2 hours tops. Lowers require a press and take more time.
I remember hearing this when I was a kid in the 80s. Then I got out of the army and started working at a Chevy Dealer. Full size vans would very commonly have shot upper ball joints and more than likely they would have Jiffy Lube stickers on the windshield. The idiot kids in the oil change pits could not reach those upper balljoints with the grease gun so you would find them dry as a cracker and clunking usually around 50-60K miles. Customer pay rate for balljoints was not bad but warranty rate sucked and a lot of late 80s gm vehicles had 5yr-50K Warranties.
Thanks for the advice and offers guys. When I went to grease the font end I noticed that both rubber boots on my lower ball joints have come out of their seats so nothing is holding the grease in. The uppers look original but held the grease. I have also been getting a snapping noise when the car sits for a bit in the garage and I first back out. I need to get her up higher and get a better look when I replace the rotors, bearings and brakes this weekend. I just wanted to know what is involved for a worse case scenario. I thought if I changed the lowers I should do the uppers as well. Tie rod ends and everything else seemed OK.
Checked and its not the bushings. After I greased the lower ball joints the snap went away. Because the boot(s) pulled away I thinking there was no grease and I had metal on metal on metal contact but I could be wrong. I will see this week when I get the car up on a lift.
To check the ball joints, place your jack under the lower control arm and get the tire off the ground. You want to place the jack under the control arm to take the weight off the joints. Get a piece of 2x4 to act as a fulcrum and place it next to the tire. Get a large pry bar or pipe. I have a 36" pry bar that is perfect as a ball joint checker. Place the pipe under the tire and pry up. There should be no play in the joints. You may have to get someone else to ply up while you look at the joints.
The lower ball joint on that car is allowed to have.070 of play and still be OK. Using your method will check the lowers, but, the only way to check the uppers is to take the tire off, jacked up the way you show, and wiggle the spindle side to side and eye ball the upper joint to see if it has play. Chances are their OK.
