Should I risk it? Ball Joint ????\'s
I need to replace the ball joints on my 44. I have the press from Harbor Freight, and four new Moog joints, and the pickle fork, basically all the tools required to pull the hubs and axles and then separate the knuckles. My question is...Should I risk doing this this weekend at my hunting cabin, which is a good hour and a half from the closest decent parts store? I have found that I really like to work on the blazer while I'm chillin' at the Tiltin' Hilton (the name my Grandma gave to the cabin). I have done some work on it there, mostly oil changes. But I did replace the radiator, and was able to work around some somewhat major setbacks. My fear is finding that I NEED something to get the blazer back on the road, and that I won't have it. I have had the hubs off plenty of times, but I have never gone any farther than that. Can anyone forsee any critical roadblocks I might encounter? Any parts I might want to have on hand for when I fubar something (like spindle nuts, or whatever...)? Should I just ride around on bad ball joints for three more weeks until I get a chance to fix them?
The sh!tty thing is that I will be going 3/4 ton with the front soon, and I'll have to swap the gears to 4.11, which means that I'll be tearing the axle down to the knuckle anyway, but I don't know how long I can ride around on these joints before I fubar something else up. Awwww [darn], I donno. Maybe I'll just have the GF drive me to work a few days next week so I can take care of this.
This will be my first time doing ball joints, anyone have an estimate of how long it should take, in an ideal "no snags" situation?
Thanks fellas.
I need to replace the ball joints on my 44. I have the press from Harbor Freight, and four new Moog joints, and the pickle fork, basically all the tools required to pull the hubs and axles and then separate the knuckles. My question is...Should I risk doing this this weekend at my hunting cabin, which is a good hour and a half from the closest decent parts store? I have found that I really like to work on the blazer while I'm chillin' at the Tiltin' Hilton (the name my Grandma gave to the cabin). I have done some work on it there, mostly oil changes. But I did replace the radiator, and was able to work around some somewhat major setbacks. My fear is finding that I NEED something to get the blazer back on the road, and that I won't have it. I have had the hubs off plenty of times, but I have never gone any farther than that. Can anyone forsee any critical roadblocks I might encounter? Any parts I might want to have on hand for when I fubar something (like spindle nuts, or whatever...)? Should I just ride around on bad ball joints for three more weeks until I get a chance to fix them?
The sh!tty thing is that I will be going 3/4 ton with the front soon, and I'll have to swap the gears to 4.11, which means that I'll be tearing the axle down to the knuckle anyway, but I don't know how long I can ride around on these joints before I fubar something else up. Awwww [darn], I donno. Maybe I'll just have the GF drive me to work a few days next week so I can take care of this.
This will be my first time doing ball joints, anyone have an estimate of how long it should take, in an ideal "no snags" situation?
Thanks fellas.
