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Take this cap off use a 22 millimeter socket take it off by hand so you don’t strip out these little caps and slide it off take the lug nuts off use the same 22 millimeter socket take the wheel off disconnect this wheel speed sensor wire you can use some needle nose pliers or a screwdriver just pop that off there and over here get underneath here and then
It’s kind of hard to see but behind the shield you have another retainer and you want to disconnect the connector you’re gonna have to feel around for it there’s a little tab pull up on the tab slide the connector out there’s another retainer that’s holding it down try to get underneath it with a trim tool and pop it out now i’m going to remove this bolt
Use a 10 millimeter socket this is for the brake hose bracket now grab that bracket you should be able to slide it up now i’m going to take out the brake caliper bracket bolts i’m going to take the caliper and the bracket off all is one with the brake pads use a 21 millimeter socket now grab the caliper use a brake caliper hanger and find a place to hang the
Caliper over here just going to hang it from the bracket for the hose brake hose and that seems like it’s working fine there’s no tension on the hose now slide the brake rotor off now i’m going to take some side cutters and take this cotter pin out just bend it back and try to grab it from the other side this is a little bit rusty so i’m just going to use
A little rust penetrant and use an 18-millimeter socket and loosen this bolt up we’re not going to take it off completely and just leave a few threads on there when you get to the end just make sure there’s a few threads on there so that’s good there’s many different tools that you can use to separate the ball joint from the knuckle you could use a pickle fork
The only problem if you use a pickle fork you’re probably going to ruin the upper ball joint bolt and if you’re not replacing the upper ball joint you probably don’t want to do that there is other types that will push on the lower part of the ball joint and you can do that or carefully take a hammer and just give it a tap right there and you should be able to
Separate it there we go separated before we take the knuckle off i want to separate the outer tie rod in and then also loosen up the lower ball joint remove this cotter pin just use some side cutters now take a 22 millimeter socket remove this nut there’s also other front end tools you can use to separate the outer tie rod from the knuckle the pickle fork
You’re probably going to ruin the boot though and then other types that push down on the nut or carefully just use a hammer and give it a tap and if you were replacing the outer tie rod you could hammer right there but you don’t want to do that because you could mushroom it over a little bit there we go that’s separated now take the cotter pin off here use
The same side cutters and just bend it and pull it out now i’m going to remove this nut use a 22 millimeter socket and now i’m going to separate the lower ball joint from the knuckle i am going to use the pickle fork again if you are trying to save the boot you probably don’t want to do this method there is other tools now that that’s separated just to make
This removable process easier i’m just going to take the nut and put it back on a couple threads now i’m going to pry down with the pry bar on the upper control arm then i can remove this nut and let that go and just move the knuckle away from the ball joint from the upper now holding supporting the knuckle then take this lower nut off and slide the knuckle
Down this vehicle has a grease fitting right here i’m just gonna remove that so it doesn’t get in the way use an eight millimeter wrench just take that off now you’re going to need to use a ball joint press and just find the right adapters that work for you find one on the bottom that’s going to be bigger than the actual ball joint and we’re just going to
Press it down because the upper control arm is in the way of my tool i am just going to loosen up the two nuts that are on the inside of the upper control arm just use a 21 millimeter socket you can use a 21 millimeter wrench on the outside just when you tighten these back up you want these cams in the exact location they were when you took them out either
Way you should get an alignment after you’re done this job just loosen this up now i can just tip that up and that’s out of my way now i’m just going to use the tool and press out the ball joint you’re having trouble getting the ball joint started with the tool lower the vehicle down onto a jack stand so that the just the lower control arm is supported by
It and now i’m going to take a hammer and just get this started start to loosen it up the reason why you support it is otherwise the vehicle is going to be moving around or the lower control arm is not going to be as rigid so now it started moving so i’m going to switch back to the tool you might have better adapters than what i have here there we go now
We’re going to install this the same way it came out slide it up find the right adapter cup that will fit and the top cup that’ll go so that it just slips over that make sure it’s not crooked it’s looking good yeah make sure it’s all the way down and it looks pretty good right there now get this upper control arm roughly at ride height when you took it off
And just tighten the nut up and torque this to 140 foot-pounds and then do the same on the other side take the grease fitting get that lined up and get it started and take a seven millimeter wrench or socket and just snug it down and take a grease gun and just give it a couple pumps of grease that’s good now grab the knuckle and line it up with the lower ball
Joint it’s a good idea to keep the nut in your hand let me get that started now we can line the upper ball joint up and just use a pry bar pry down on the upper control arm and get that nut started now i’m going to torque this nut to 81 foot-pounds and look for the where the cotter pin is going to go if the hole doesn’t line up then just tighten it up a
Little bit more so that the castle nut lines up with the hole and put the cotter pin through take the side cutters and just bend it and trim the excess now we’ll tighten up the upper ball joint nut and if the stud starts spinning you can support the lower control arm and use a pry bar and pry down on the upper control arm and torque this to 37 foot-pounds
And if the cotter pin doesn’t line up the hole doesn’t line up tighten it up a little bit more now slide the cotter pin through and just use the side cutters and bend it and just trim the excess now line the tie rod end up with the knuckle and put the nut on and tighten this down to 44 foot-pounds and again if the castle nut doesn’t line up with the hole
Then you can tighten it up a little bit more and slide the cotter pin through and bend it with the side cutters and put the rotor on i’m just going to put a lug nut on the rotor just to hold it from flopping around now take the caliper off the hanger and making sure the hose isn’t twisted slide the caliper back over the rotor make sure the pads are separated
Take the caliper bolts you can put some thread lock adhesive on these bolts there we go and torque these bolts to 221 foot-pounds and line this bracket up take the bolt get that started and tighten this down and just snug it down now take the wheel speed sensor harness and line that up push that lock it down in the bracket take this push pin right here line
That up and the other push pin you can’t really see it behind there and then you’re going to connect the connector up there as well and lock it down now take the nut off the lug nut and the lug nuts now i’m going to torque these lug nuts to 140 foot-pounds in a cross pattern to tighten the wheel down evenly now i’m just going to go around again double check
Take the cover line it up and just by hand just tighten these down just snug not too tight after you’re done the job keep in mind you should bring the vehicle to a local shop and have it aligned you don’t want to have premature tire wear you
Transcribed from video
How To Replace Lower Ball Joint 2007-2014 GMC Sierra 3500 HD By TRQ