7.3L Power Stroke Engine and DrivetrainDiscussion of the 7.3L Power Stroke diesel engine and drivetrain in the 1999-Up Super Duty trucks and Excursions. No gas engine discussion allowed except on transmissions and drivetrain that pertain to all models. Please confine discussion of topics in this forum to those items that are specific to the 7.3L Power Stroke engine.
I know for a fact my upper ball joints are shot, and the driverside tire leans in like crazy tell tale sign of ball joint, put it on lift and checked it out and did balljoint test so on and so forth... My question is 1 how hard is it going to be to do, Ive doen them on a buddies Dmax not to difficult, and arent I going to need the balljoint press too? I believe I have one of those laying around. How do I do it, and also when Ive got it apart I plan on doing u-joints, is there anything else I should do while I have got it apart? Its the truck in my Sig
Thanks in advance
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Its a work in progress: 2001 Ford F-250 7.3 Powerstroke 60,000 miles. Have big dreams for this truck. LT305/75R16 mickey thompson mtx, Sirius satelite radio, Muffler Delete with 6 inch tip at a 45 out the back. KC Slim Lite Off Road lights. Bumper Guard. 2 10" subs with Alpine deck. Garmin GPS. DP Tuner- No start, 1200 rpm hi idle, 60hp Tow, 80hp econ, 100 hp performance, 120 hp Race, 140 hp aggressive. Isspro white dial chrome bezel blue pointer Pyro, Boost, and Trans temp in 3 pod a pilar mount
Give the search feature a try here because there have been pages and pages of discussions on 4x4 balljoints.
On second thought whoever runs this place now seems to care more about selling baloney advertisements so not sure how well the search feature is gonna help you but you could always try Google.
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early 99 F350 4x4, 16" Weld Super Singles, and some other upgrades
Yep, do all the ball joints, not just uppers if that was your plan. Get all the seals required. one of them is a large seal that takes a special tool to press onto the axle. (For proper depth... maybe the dealer can press it on for you quick, or loan you the tool? My dealer loaned it to me overnight) In any event, those two seals, the dust seal, the yellow "O" ring for the hub, to name three off the top of my head.
Use your best judgement on the "U" joints, if they feel good, don't bother. Mine were fine with 100k miles on them.
Not an extremely difficult job, but took me the better part of two evenings to do them.....
Well worth it since FIRESTONE wanted 1300.00 to do them IIRC,,,, it's a no brainer.
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Jim T.*48* SLAPS Co-Founder, 30.8 yrs RETIRED UAW 6/01/06, Now a full time Technician in the MOANG 12/10/07 My pics! and my New'03 Dually pics!, Charcoal Grey, Black and Grey interior, Black leather seats, Van Turbo/ATS ported housing/WW, Quad "A" pillar pod with Carbon Fiber series AUTO METER Gauges, FUMOTO Valve. BTS BUBBA" /TS 4pos chip, 4" Turbo back straight pipe/stainless 5" tip 131st F/W St.Louis MoAirNatlGuard We're losing the F-15s. BUT BEING HANDED THE KEYS TO THE B-2 BOMBERS at WHITMAN AFB, Near Kansas City, MO.!! We are Lindburghs OWN! Suffering from *PMS,, "Powerstroke mod syndrome"
I planned on doing all 4 balljoints and also ujoints and whatever else is needed while I am in there and have it apart
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Its a work in progress: 2001 Ford F-250 7.3 Powerstroke 60,000 miles. Have big dreams for this truck. LT305/75R16 mickey thompson mtx, Sirius satelite radio, Muffler Delete with 6 inch tip at a 45 out the back. KC Slim Lite Off Road lights. Bumper Guard. 2 10" subs with Alpine deck. Garmin GPS. DP Tuner- No start, 1200 rpm hi idle, 60hp Tow, 80hp econ, 100 hp performance, 120 hp Race, 140 hp aggressive. Isspro white dial chrome bezel blue pointer Pyro, Boost, and Trans temp in 3 pod a pilar mount
I planned on doing all 4 balljoints and also ujoints and whatever else is needed while I am in there and have it apart
Most would do that, but some try to get by with just what they find bad, ok, then get all your seals and the tool, or figure on taking it apart, then seeing if you can borrow the tool or the dealer would press on those large seals to the axle, maybe for 20.00 during lunch for a tech or something?
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Jim T.*48* SLAPS Co-Founder, 30.8 yrs RETIRED UAW 6/01/06, Now a full time Technician in the MOANG 12/10/07 My pics! and my New'03 Dually pics!, Charcoal Grey, Black and Grey interior, Black leather seats, Van Turbo/ATS ported housing/WW, Quad "A" pillar pod with Carbon Fiber series AUTO METER Gauges, FUMOTO Valve. BTS BUBBA" /TS 4pos chip, 4" Turbo back straight pipe/stainless 5" tip 131st F/W St.Louis MoAirNatlGuard We're losing the F-15s. BUT BEING HANDED THE KEYS TO THE B-2 BOMBERS at WHITMAN AFB, Near Kansas City, MO.!! We are Lindburghs OWN! Suffering from *PMS,, "Powerstroke mod syndrome"
My lower ball joint on driver's side is gone, assuming other side is bad too. Pre-runner style tilt on front tires. Fixed a clunk sound in front end after stepping on the brakes with repairing tie rod end, still had a clunk there after the repair so pulled front tire off and I was able to jiggle the rotor/bearing/studs 1/8" up and down and saw all the movement was in lower joint.
I still have to source a good ball joint press. Gotta do a dodge 3500 after I do mine so thought I'd just buy the damn tool. Going to check and see what www.princessauto.com has.
Yup.... be doing everything with the powerstrokeshop kit.
Princessauto has a complete c-clamp style press with adapters for $100 bucks. Prob get that. Then make up that pipe flange "tool" for pressing on the drive shaft oil seal myself.
I bought a ball joint / u joint press kit today at KMS Tools for $130cdn. Princess Auto had a similar one for $99 but ball joint only so figured for $30 bucks extra I'll prob be doing the u-joints on the axles while I have it all apart.
This second pic shows how heavy built this sucker is:
I planned on doing all 4 balljoints and also ujoints and whatever else is needed while I am in there and have it apart
Buckshot,
When I did my ujoints, I also had the ctr bearing replaced. I replaced the ujoints myself, but had the old ctr bearing pressed off & the new ctr bearing pressed on for about $20 @ my local auto machine shop.
Also, get the greasable ujoints and ball joints (I used MOOG) - gives you peace of mine and a long life on these replacement parts.
Hopes this helps,
Butchcassidy1
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2000 F250, 2WD, XLT - A HAULING AND TOWING WORKHORSE.
I know for a fact that there are directions and pictures about how to do it here on this site because I changed mine using them. It took me about four hours to take it all apart (everything was stuck together) and then about three to put it all back together. You will need a press.
I bought a ball joint / u joint press kit today at KMS Tools for $130cdn. Princess Auto had a similar one for $99 but ball joint only so figured for $30 bucks extra I'll prob be doing the u-joints on the axles while I have it all apart.
Just a heads-up on axle u-joints. The receiver hole (opposite the screw) in your press is most likely too small for the u-joint cups to fit thru. AND, there isn't enough throat for much of a spacer so you can get them out far enough to grab with vice grips. I have the OTC version of that tool and ran into that problem. Finally wound up running the axles over to a buddy's shop to use his hydraulic press. MAN, did those things POP when they came loose.
The press I have works very nicely for driveshaft u-joints, as the cups are smaller diameter and will fit thru the hole.
I started tonight when I got home around 7:30pm. Just cleaned up the tools around 9:30pm. Couldn't use any big hammers or anything as the freakin tenants were sleeping early. Used an air hammer quick on the brake disc after getting wd40 behind it. Came off ok. Everything came apart pretty much without incident.
I'm at the stage now where I got the axle out and everything off except the knuckle. Loosened the ball joint nuts. Tomorrow morning I'm gonna give it a big wack with the sledge to get the "moose" knuckle off. LOL
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