how do i cheak my ball joints to see if there worn and if so are they hard to replace and are they expensive

never replaced them, never seen anyone replace them either so cant help on that, but i think i heard you can check them by jacking up the car a little and see if the wheel wiggles back and forth, then again ive never checked them either, someone else here should be able to help you,

First off, why do you think one may be bad?

The first thing to do is get a buddy or a girlfriend or someone to sit in the jeep and slowly move the steering wheel back and forth while you lay under the jeep with a flash light and look at every place your steering can move (ie every ball joint and tie rod end). If you see any relative motion between the part then you have a bad joint. If you jack up the front end, you might miss something. After you do that, jack up the front axle put it on jack stands, and have someone (probably not a girlfriend this time) grab on to a wheel and try to lift it up, push and pull in the top and bottom of the wheel, while you lay under the jeep and look at the wheel ball joints, again you are looking for any relative motion between the steering knuckles and the axle housing.

Sean

Read up a chiltons or haynes manual. Ball joints arn,t hard to change but a small press helps. First you remove the tire, then the hub, brake rotor. frt axle and disconnect the tie rods. The ball joints are pressed in plus held on with a large nut and cotter key. The first time I did mine I took the parts off and did not have a press so off I went to the Jeep dealership with the 2 knuckles. They charged around $100 labor. The next time on another old cj the local auto and tool supply house had a special on a small hydralic press powered by a bottle jack. So I bought that instead of giving the dealer more money. It is also useful for U joints, etc. It does require quite a few tools and you must be careful when using a press because you are exerting a lot of force to break the joint loose. At the very least safty glasses are a must.

thanks just wanted to cheak them thanks fo advice

actually you get a very big pair of channellocks. jack up the jeep and squeeze the ball joints. i have a 24 inch set of channellocks at work i use for tis purpose and many others.have one jaw on the top of the ball joint and the other on the part where the nut is. to remove them will be a pain if they been in there for a long time. spry them with pb blaster or aerokroil and let them set, repete for a day or 2 then have at it. you will have to remove the brakes,calipers rotors and axels to get the ball joint press in there to press them out. you still may need to add heat to the situation still to get them out.

Different vehicles have different ways of checking them yes some you shake the wheel from top to bottom,some you jack up one side as close to the ball join as you can with a floor jack and pry up and down and some you squeeze. my ball joints was very bad and the only way i knew about it after trying every method i knew was squeezing them. another thing don't get factory or cheap ball joints i reccomend moog and i am sure there are other good ones that these guys know about.