Spent $60 on a ball joint press and saved myself $400 at the shop

My 2004 Silverado started clunking over bumps last month so I jacked it up and found both lower ball joints were shot. The shop down the street wanted $460 for the job, but I grabbed a press kit from Harbor Freight for $60 and rented the adapters free from O'Reilly. Took me about 4 hours in my driveway in Tucson, and the hardest part was getting the old joints to pop loose without wrecking the boot on the new ones. Anyone else get nervous pressing suspension parts for the first time, or is it just me?

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river_jones1mo ago

Pressing suspension parts scared the crap out of me the first time too (that popping sound when the old joint finally lets go will make you jump). But honestly, four hours in your own driveway beats paying a shop $460 any day, that's just how it goes once you've got the tools. Only thing I'd push back on is calling it "saving" $400. You traded a Saturday and some scraped knuckles for it, and if that press sits in your garage collecting dust for the next five years, your real savings shrink. Still worth it though, don't get me wrong.

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