im replacing the lower ball joint on my '00 SI- the one on the bottom of the hub assembly in the front.. connects to the control arm... does this ball joint have to be pressed in/. or can i just evenly tap it in with a hammer? never really does this before but i have experience with pressing in bearings with a hammer-just never a whole ball joint... please let me know- im gonna takle this task tomorrow... thanks

 

They can be a bitch to get in. A little trick is to put the ball joint in the freezer for a couple of hours. This causes the metal to contract a little bit. when you are ready heat up the knuckle where the ball joint goes through, grad the ball joint out of the freezer and pop it in place. It should go in with almost no extra work.

 

nice trick.. i will definately try it..

 

at the part store you can rent ball joint removers, presses if you want to call them that. you pay $80, and they fully return your money once you return it.
and yeah the freezer/heating thing will work wonders.

 

On other thing make sure that you remove the rubber boot before you install the ball joint so you don't damage it.

 

Here is a writeup I did.

How to replace wheel bearings/lower ball joints

Search > you.

m-

 

i didnt need to neccesarily know how to do it, just wanted to know if it needed to be pressed in or not..
i rented that ball joint press from autozone and it sucked *****.. i dont know if its just the autozone where i live or all around but aout half of the things that are in your pics i didnt get .. so luckily i had a hookup at honda that pressed it in for free..

thanks for all the help fellas!