Itinerant Air-Cooled

Need to press in a set of ball joints in preparation for Colin's visit. One of our esteemed members has a press I can use but he has never used it. Don't wanna kill myself or any bystanders due to exploding parts or something caused by my inexperience. Anyone know how to use one? Better yet, anyone in Portland wanna come and show me how to do it?

i used a 25 ton press to do mine. after that experience i don't think a 2 ton will work. definetly won't press them out. might press them in. don't get the upper, lower confused, or upside down. there are notches to be accounted for when rigging up a method to push on it. i'd remember more if'n i was lookin at it.

DON'T STAND IN FRONT OF IT. stand off to the side when pumping the press. the old one will come out with fearsome force. the guy whose press i used cautioned me, and stood well away, giggling madly.
do a video search on ball joint removal. there was one guy doing bus joints with a ball joint tool an impact wrench and a bfh. made it look easy. did it on the car. ha ha. there are others showing the explosive force they can come apart with.


no little ones around during the pressing.
seriously, i was making jigs out of leftover square structural tubing, 2X2 maybe? using big honkin sockets, etc.... whole thing went flying with considerable force. got them all out and new ones in. went in much easier. i also drilled the caps and inatalled grease fittings.

I agree, the 2 ton press isn't up to the task. I think when I did it the pressure was up to 12 tons to get them to break loose. You need a special collar to support the arm as you press the joint out too. It might not be worth the effort if it is only a one time thing. I happened to have a 50 ton press sitting in the shop outside my house, so that is why I did it. In the end, I wasn't too happy with how tight the steering was afterwards anyway.

Tim

Line Up Shop in Portland will do it for you. Near the SE Lucky Lab, on 7th I think...

Line Up Shop did mine on Gretchen Ghia. I didn't want to tackle that task myself, and wanted them done right. I called Halsey's, Always, and the Line Up Shop. The Line Up Shop was the only shop to ask me what quality new ball joints I wanted to use, so they got the job. Reasonable. Included alignment.


neal

ruckman101 wrote:Line Up Shop did mine on Gretchen Ghia. I didn't want to tackle that task myself, and wanted them done right. I called Halsey's, Always, and the Line Up Shop. The Line Up Shop was the only shop to ask me what quality new ball joints I wanted to use, so they got the job. Reasonable. Included alignment.


neal

How much was it? I'm trying to get this done as cheap as possible. That's why I wanted to do it myself.Arm is not attached to the bus so I really just need the ball joint pressed in.

Seems like the total was a couple hundred including the better quality ball joints and the alignment. I'll try to dig up the receipt and give you a firm cost. That was of course driving Gretchen in and then picking up the next day. They did everything. Of course I was steadily employed at that point.


neal

I recently put new ball joints in my bus with a 30 ton press we have at the shop I work at and a handmade jig. However, I do not have the tool to correctly peen the outer edge after the new ball joints are in. For safety's sake, how necessary is peening them after installation? I know German Supply could peen them if I took the ball joints back out, but I would rather not go through that wrestling match again.