Quote Originally Posted by stangri View Post
Anyone, anyone?

How labor-intensive is this task (replacing ball joints) on VX (in terms of how much a mechanic would ask for the job)? Is it possible to do without removing caliper/rotor?

The shop I'd trust to do that is pretty far away, I wouldn't want to drive there just to get an estimate.
If your average mechanically it would take you 8 hours- 4 hours each side. there is a learning curve and it goes faster each time you do it. There are some "How to" links on this...I think. Maybe it was triathlete that (or was it Marlin) that posted a pictorial.??? but wherre the difficulty is when I have done it is replacement of the lower ball joint. You have to fight resistance from the suspension when religning and getting your bolts back in. Otherwise it is easy and a rewarding experience. Use a sledge to bang on the joints to pop them apart.

If you want to replace Tie rod sleeves -with actually the only one available on the market- then go to Indy4x4.com they have a beefed up version for the VX.

The kits of ball joints and tie rod ends are cheap and I found dozens on Ebay. The same year Trooper is identical so you may use the Trooper as your search term. also Carpartswholesale.com and some of the other comparable sites offer cheap kits. good luck. oh and you remove the caliper- easy but not the rotor. when you remove the caliper be prepared to immediately tie it up out of the way with a bungy or something.