hey guys first just let me say thanks to everyone who helped me with my noise i was having; it was the tranny mount put in a new one no noise but now i need to know how to replace ball joints looks kinda hard' but would rather do it myself i have a 77 mav i6 will have pic before long so any info would help thanks tom
The lower balljoint comes with the lower cotrol arm as one piece on the Maverick. It pretty much just unbolts. Of course the car needs to be on stands, etc,....yada,yada,yada
I'm guessing you know where they are located and have an idea how it all fits together, so first you need to jack the car up and put jack stands under the frame. Not the lower A-arm. Now remove the tire. Next remove the cotter pin from the retaining nut on the ball joint stud, and remove the nut. Then you need a special tool called a ball joint separator or forked tool as they are often called. You drive it inbetween the top of the spindle and bottom of the upper A-arm. Then hit the living snot out of it with a BFH until the spindle drops off the stud. Try not to hit the fender of the car as this will tend to ruin your day. The spindle will not fall all the way off. You will have to push it down with considerable force to get it off the stud. You then need to determine if the ball joint has been replaced before. If so, the hard work is done because they will be bolted on. They are rivited in from the factory, so if that is what you have, the rivits will have to be drilled and punched out. The outer two are fairly easy. That one in the back can be a bear. Once the 3 rivits or bolts are out, just drop the old ball joint out from the bottom of the A-arm and bolt on the new one. Reassemble in reverse order.
