Originally Posted By: joel95ex
i am replacing the whole upper arm, but replacing the ball joints on the lower arms
If the Ram is anything like my old F150, I had the toughest time removing the ball joint from the lower control arm. The truck had around 75k miles on it at that point so time, rust, pressure, etc.. all had found a way to more or less weld it into place.
Initially I started out with a "OTC Ball Joint Press" from AutoZone, but it didn't have a spacer ring that was deep enough to clear the lower ball joint. I had to go to Harbor Freight and buy one of their higher end ball joint kits that came with a bunch of different spacers and that worked.
The truck was out of service for 2 days while I tried to figure out how to get out of the mess. Had I opted to simply buy replacement control arms, the job would have been done in a day (including the alignment done by a shop).
After that whole ordeal, I would suggest a few things:
1. Don't use a pickle fork to separate a ball joint. It just gets really noisy and you get tired easily and doesn't do a particularly good job in the end.
2. Get some proper pitman arm pullers in various sizes. It's so much easier to ratchet something off than to bang away with a hammer.
3. Don't be afraid to use heat, especially if you're just going to be replacing parts.
4. Kroil or PB Blaster on everything you're going to be separating a week before you start the job.