Orion Motor Tech Ball Joint Press Kit, Heavy Duty Ball Joint Removal Tool Kit with 4x4 Adapters, for Most 2WD and 4WD Cars and Light Trucks

Works great. First thing I did was to greased the thread. Works great, on small cars and trucks. The only issue is lack of adapters for bigger ball joints or more complicated knuckles.

Until I purchased this tool I have just borrowed them, which you can do at most major auto parts stores for free - well as long as you are making some kind of purchase. I have done a lot of front end work and will probably do more so decided to just get my own tool.This one is very similar to the ones I have borrowed although a bit smaller, meaning a few less adapters. But for my 2010 F150 it had what I needed and would have been fine with the other 20 or so jobs I have done over my lifetime. It's well made with solid components including the heavy duty press and should work well for most applications. Comes in a nice form fitting case so you'll know if a part is missing. I can definitely recommend this for someone who plans to do a lot of front end work in the future. But if it's just for one job, I recommend renting one.That said, there are a few "tricks" to using one of these and probably making is a bit of a challenge for someone not accustom to removing and replacing ball joints. If it's your first time using one of these here are a few tips.For one, these tools are much better and made more for installing ball joints than removing them. If you are using it to remove a ball joint make sure to remove the snap ring (if there is one) and spray the joint well with penetrating oil. I recommend doing this a few hours before starting the removal if not overnight. Also, before using the tool to remove the ball joint, use a small but heavy hammer first. Brace up the arm so there is no give and give it a few good wacks, then spray it again. You won't hurt the frame so don't worry about that. Just make sure to hit the joint flat so as not to make a dent near the edge which might cause a hang up. Repeat this a few times and you might be surprised that it comes out just doing this versus trying to press it out. I have hammered out more than I have pressed out by a wide margin. At the very least it will loosen it up a bit before you use the press.If you do need to press it out, stop now and then as you tighten it down and give it a few more wacks with the hammer. If it's real stubborn, you might need to apply a little heat to the frame - not the ball joint. Again, you won't hurt anything heating it up so get it good and hot. Just keep clear of any rubber bushing or wiring nearby. Use a breaker bar with a socket to apply the needed pressure but noting more than that. If you need to use a pipe to extend the length of the bar to apply more pressure, you could and probably will, bend the tool. You need to be patient, tighten, spray, heat, wack with hammer - repeat. It will come lose.Installing the new ball joint is the tricky part and where most first timers run into trouble. You want to clean the hole out with a wire brush and apply a thin film of grease. Then figure out what combinations of adapter are needed to install the ball joint based on the design. Again though, you should not need anything more than a breaker bar to apply the needed pressure. It is possible for the ball joint to get cocked in the the hole, but pretty unlikely. If the tool is setup properly, the ball joint will pretty much self-center as there is normally a slight tapper. Install the new snap ring and that's it.Hope this helps a little. There are also quite a few You Tube videos on using the tool, although some are not that good so keep these tips in mind. I have done this many times.Good Luck !!

I bought this ball joint service kit to replace the ball joints on my 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 4WD (I did the job in February 2018). The c-frame is a beast and I was pretty confident it would easily do the job. Once I got it on the truck, I was slightly less confident. Those ball joints are definitely in there. The kit is NOT a perfect fit for this exact application, it will be off-alignment at times. For me, the best results were had when I removed the lower ball joint first, an impact wrench makes it quite a bit easier and I think it is more effective at breaking the ball joint loose. Removing the upper ball joint required more creativity. It could not be done the "normal" way because the removal adapter is way too big in diameter to clear the inside of the axle and the curvature of the yoke-ear (i.e. it does not fit). Instead I had to run it "backwards" and put the screw onto the shaft of the ball joint, but that can only be done by passing the screw through the hole in the axle yoke of the lower ball-joint. I did the first upper ball joint with a large ratchet and it ended up pressing the shaft (king-pin) right up through the top of the joint assembly. In other words the force blew the shaft right through to the top of the ball joint (the upper ball joint on the '04 2500 is not actually a ball joint, it's a king pin). The shaft was removed at this point, but the ball joint body was still 100% installed in the axle (not good). This presented me with a new problem as the kit had no adapter I could use to press the upper ball joint out at this point. But I had a large metric socket that was shallow (i.e. not a deep socket) and it's diameter fit the ball joint perfectly, I was able to improvise and since the shaft of the ball joint was gone I was now able to use the socket as the removal adapter and press the ball joint body out of the axle (yay). For my second attempt on the other upper ball joint, I used the impact wrench and the job went a LOT smoother. The shaft of the joint did not explode through the top of the ball joint body, it did deform quit a bit, but the body of the ball joint released from the axle before the top of the body failed. The impact wrench made a big difference in my case.Installing the new joints went a LOT better than the removal. Again, I'll point out that for my exact application I had to carefully press the ball joints into the axle while the press was not square. It requires a little patience. To ensure I did not get the new joints wedged in a bad way, I had to press them in a little bit, check them, and realign the press as necessary so it would apply more force on a particular side to straighten it out. Once the ball joint was in deep enough this wasn't a problem, but the initial insertion required patience. This is because the kit does not have any adapters that align perfectly to this job.For those of you with the same generation Dodge Ram 2500, Cummins, live front axle, this kit will work, but it's not a perfect fit.All in all, it worked. The tool absolutely held up to the job. Oh, one more thing, be sure you lubricate the press-screw liberally, otherwise you will probably start to encounter some galling and that could end up ruining the press and worse, leaving you stuck with job partially done. The lubrication makes the press work a LOT better. I used Permatex Anti-Sieze Compound, which worked great.

So handy and well-priced for what it is. Have been using it for suspension work where it's proven itself several times over. Just love how my ratchet just powers the ball joints right into place.

Made changing my upper and lower ball joints really easy. Used with wrench and with an impact and 0 issues. Didn't crack or break when I used the impact.

This tool worked great when removing the ball joints from my son's 2009 Dodge Dakota 4x4. That said it did not work on my 2016 Ram 2500 4x4 even though the description says it will work on 3/4 ton trucks. While trying to press the ball joint out of my Ram it sprung the C frame as it wasn't strong enough to handle the pressure required to press out the bottom ball joint. I would recommend this for 1/2 trucks and small and cars, if you need to work on a 3/4 ton I would choose a stronger tool.