How do you remove the lower ball joint on a 2000 Chevy s10 4x4?

Answer 1

To remove the lower ball joints on a 94-2001 Chevy S10 (perhaps this works with older ones too I'm not too sure).

Raise vehicle up on jack stands so that the stands are under the lower controll arms and the suspension is "loaded"

Remove the front tire(s) (if you break the torque on the nuts while the wheel is still on the ground it helps, but do not loosen them completely as you will be looking for new rims and wheel studs too).

Place a drift or some other suitable object in one of the brake rotor vanes so that it will hit the brake caliper and stop the rotor from moving and remove the CV shaft nut (it's a big sucker make sure you have the right socket on hand before getting to this point).

Next remove the brake caliper and rotor then undo the wheel bearing retaining bolts and remove the wheel bearing.

This should give you enough room to move the axle shaft back and up so you can work on the ball joint.

If you've had ball joints replaced before just unbolt the ones that are installed and using a pickle fork, or a block of wood and a hammer, drive the ball joint stud from the knuckle. (make sure to support the upper control arm so it doesn't drop down on you when you do this)

If you are working on original ball joints then I recommend placing a block of wood or something else that will protect the cv boots from drill bits ect and drill out the rivets holding the ball joint in place. then remove in the same manner indicated in the previous paragraph.

installation is pretty much the reverse of removal and don't forget to torque your cv shaft nut I have a 1999 and the manual specs 103FTlbs... This is a critical torque as it helps preload your wheel bearing. Too high and you'll burn them up, too low and they'll be loose and wear out.