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ORIGINAL: 4lowlife

Hi tom1337. You may have to drill them out.

I had to chisel 3 rivets out per ball joint to get mine out. I don't have air tools. I went through a few drill bits to drill them out the best I could. Then I proceeded to use an awl and hammer and banged them out. Got alignment done and it hanldes like it was new.

P.S. now would be a goood time to check the inner and outer tie rods!

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Are the axle shafts suposed to be removed before attempting to replace the ball joints the shop manual does not say if this is a step, maybe assuming that it would be obvious.

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to replace the balljoints on an 89 4x4 you don't have to have a balljoint press, both the upper and lower balljoint's are riveted to the control arms with large steel rivets. All you have to do is raise the vehicle and support the lower control arms with jackstands,remove the wheel, remove your tie rod, then remove your CV axle nut from the center of the hub, and take your upper and lower ball joint nuts loose(not all the way off, just loose enough so you can see 4-5 threads between the nut and the steering knuckle) and at the steering knuckle where the stud of the ball joint goes through it, whack the hell out off the knuckle with a heavy hammer, at the upper joint and at the lower joint. Beating the hell out of the knucle will break the press fit tapered studs loose from thier holes, thus avoiding the use of a balljoint seperator, once the studs are loose remove the upper nut all the way and pickup on the upper arm, this will let the knucle tilt out towards you(your CV axle may take some persuasion to be pushed through the hub and out the backside) grab the knuckle assembly firmly and lift up a little bit and remove the lower nut, now rest th whole knuckle, rotor, caliper assembly on a large block of wood or somethin similar, but dont drop it because you will break you brake hose, now you will need to grind the heads off of the rivets with a small sidegrinder and use a hammer and punch to drive the rivets out of the control arms. your new ball joints will come with bolts, nuts, and lock washers to bolt them onto the control arms, once you finish bolting in the new balljoints reassemble the knuckle, axle, and control arms in reverse order, and repeat for the other side. If my explanation of hitting the knuckle with a hammer to get the studs loose from thier holes is good enough for you to figure out what I'm talking about then that will elimnate the use for a balljoint separator, and the fact that an 89 4X4 has riveted in balljoints rather than press fit eliminates the need for a balljoint press, so other than a sidegrinder and a large enough socket to remove the axle nut you can do this job with simple hand tools. hope this helps you out, and hope I explained it so you can visualize what I'm talking about, I have probably done 50-100 sets of balljoints on all different makes of trucks and cars, so if you have any questions feel free to ask, John