Ball Joint Press - which do you use?

I'm looking for a good affordable Ball Joint Press, and was curious what everyone else uses to give me some idea's of where to get one. I don't trust the cheap $40 one's that you can find on eBay or by googling the term "ball joint press". I also don't want to pay $700 for a tool that I will probably only use once every 10 years.

 

I don't know about in Texas, but here in Florida, you can rent those tools from your auto parts store. You pay for the tool, use it, and when you return it intact, they refund every penny. I bought a master ball joint press kit for almost $300 and my wife laughed at me. She's a delivery driver at a local auto parts store, and she says that even the local big shops in town just rent theirs when they need one, because they seldom ever need to use them. Wouldn't hurt to call around to see if that's an option for you.

-Josh

 

the amount of times i've used one, I bought a Harbor Freight special. I forgot to remove the C rings in the u-joints on my explorer. I opened up the cast C, but didn't hurt any of the other parts. basically the threaded part was no longer centered on the contact surface or hole opposite of the threaded rod.

they exchanged it no questions asked.

 

Check out your local parts store - in this case Schucks "sold" me the entire ball joint press collection and when I returned it the next day, they refund all the money - as in FREE. One of the stores will charge you three dollars a day after the first day and then donate it to a charity. Check it out.

 

I know we at Oreilly rent a nice setup, keep it as long as you need, return it clean and we will refund every penny. Schuck, Checker, Krugen and Murry (CSK) was bought out by Oreilly, So if you have any of these stores nearby they should be able to help you

Shawn

 

Yup, I bought my OTC some 15 years ago, and it gets very heavy use at my repair shop. Still works great, and the price is right!

 

Thanks everyone! I may rent one from O'rielly's, but then again I would also like to have one just to have in case I ever happen to need it again. So, I may go with the OTC. Especially since it can do U-joints. :TU:

 

That looks like a fair price for the tool. I've been in desperate need of one of these for u joints before, more than one time. Would have paid the price at that time. It's on my "need" list now. When you live somewhere like I do, there is no rental around through the local napa.
I don't even buy parts at the local parts store anymore since they tried to tell me that the parts on my Buick were not right. Not what they show in their book. Now I call a parts store about 50 miles away (another napa) that found my car in the same book, then they had fun looking up other interesting things about my car while they were in the book.

 

Just for info. The one my Oreilly store rents is for ball joints and u joints, and if you wanna keep it, just never return it, Its your to keep, We will just order another tool rental
Shawn

 

I went ahead and purchased an OTC press. Thanks for everyones input!

Welcome to the club. I've gone through the exact same things with them.
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