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D30 Ball Joint Replacement
 

To remove these, you will have to give them a few good whacks.  There is a small "shelf" cast into the knuckle (circled in yellow in the above photo) that provides a good place for the hammer to strike.

Finally, the axle will look something like this�

Once again, I would suggest doing this one side at a time so if anything goes wrong; you can use the other side as a reference. My project involved swapping axles, so I was removing everything at one time.

Now its time to remove the old ball joints from the axle. As I mentioned, I failed to snap pics when I removed them from my HP30, but I setup the ball joint press on my old axle to show you how it will look. If I were you, I would just rent a suitable ball joint press from Autozone. However, I like to buy tools; they are like my big boy toys so I purchased a good quality ball joint press. Do not rely on a harbor freight u-joint tool, it might look the same, but I have heard they have a tendency of bending.

(Stu comment:  What Frank said is very true....the HF tool is NOT up to this job!)

Here is mine, OTC PN: 7249 with the optional adapters for Jeep 4wd vehicles (PN: 7894). I�m not sure if the adapters are necessary, but they definitely work great. You can see the MADE IN USA sticker�that�s what you are looking for IMO.
 

(Stu comment:  The adapters are virtually a must have, in my opinion.  They compensate for the odd angle that the TJ's ball joints are mounted at.)

Shown here are the press and the Jeep/Dodge adapters.

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