Thread: ball joint/tie rod/wheel bearing replacement

This work is being done on a B13. I have hubs/knuckles that Im swapping and doing the lower ball joints and outer tie rods while its all apart.

Any tips or tricks that will make this less of a hassle? Im planning on renting a ball joint press from autozone, which kit in particular works best on our cars? I dont see any sort of tie rod installer, do those just screw in?

Im confident in my ability to take this apart, but maybe not as much putting it back together

I am in the middle of taking the ball joints and tie rods off my B13. The press kit I rented from autozone doesn't have the right receiving tube so I'm not sure how I'm gonna get them off? What did you end up doing?

Tie rod end replacement should be a lot easier, just unscrew the tie rod end from the inner tie rod, count how many times it takes to take it off the inner tie rod end, put the new on one counting to the same number.

Take the control arm off,and stop by a local auto shop they should be able to press it for a small fee or in some cases free of charge.

I just did all the same stuff a few weeks ago.. for removing the tie rods I use one of these pulley pullers (the one on the left)



dont worry about getting the new tie rods threaded perfectly, you're going to need an alignment anyway

I could see how the one on the left could take a ball joint off but how could it take your tie rod off? (caution I am pretty noobish haha)

easy way to do ball joints is to unbolt the control arm. It's super easy on these cars. Then use a press to press them out. the "ball joint press" doesn't work too good.

But pressing them out on the press is super easy and fast.

You'll need a press to press the wheel bearings anyway. Go to harbor freight and buy on lol. They end up being really cheap and it saves you a ton of $$$ in the long run. But they can be cumbersome, so hopefully you have some spare space in your garage.

Usually if you whack the knuckle right by the tie rod it usually pops out.

I just finished installing new ball joints no more than 45 minutes ago and it was a breeze with the auto zone tool. You just have to know how to configure it. It took me no more than 25 minutes. Although my control arms where out since I had them powder coated them.


For the tie rod ends I usually take a heavy hammer it out by first striking the side of the knuckle. Then I strike the thread side of the tie rod straight up a couple of times and BAM its out!

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Never strike the threaded side, if u hit it hard enough to bend it or peen it then u need torches to cut it off. Just wack the side of the crown where the tie rod goes in to like hulk smash and ull be good. I only do about 50 a week so idno what I'm talking about. Also same goes for the ball joint. Knuckle side