Here's a question for you guys. Attempted to change all four of my ball joints today, got the upper control arms swapped with no problems. When it came to installing the lower joints I ran in to some problems. I was using a ball joint press and the "directions" stated that for installation just basically reverse your steps for removal. It didn't seem right to me to put the adapter right against the boot and press (for fear of cracking the rubber boot). That is exactly what happened. Even after watching a few videos on the ways to do it. Do any of you have any advice or tips and tricks that you learned while doing your own? Any help would be appreciated.

 

BTW, the truck is a 1998 4x4 if that makes any difference.

 

Using the wrong cup... It should seat against the rim of the ball joint and not touch the boot

 

That's what I thought too, but the instructions showed that you do not use a cup on the stud/boot side of the joint whenever you are installing it. You basically just smash the boot. Common sense tells you what's going to happen in that case. Nonetheless, I got it figured out. Went to Ace and bought a small piece of pipe that fit around the ball joint. It worked and I'm done. Thanks for your input.