Thoughts on OTC u-joint / ball joint tool vs Harbor Freight vs rental

I rented a ball-joint press from a local chain store and promptly returned it. They had another but in both cases the tools were hammered. Some shade-tree with a 3/4 ton truck beating on these turned them to sh*t. My made-in-Taiwan press (not China) was inexpensive and will easily stand up to anything a Jeep can throw at it.

Now, owning such a tool makes it tempting to do u-joints with it but you can easily bend the yoke ears. Keep doing u-joints with sockets and a 3-lb mini sledge.
 
Daryl, that set appears much bigger and beefier in person, more so than the picture adequately portrays. It is a beast. One of the better tools in my arsenal. I have replaced the u-joints and ball joints on F250s and F350 Twin Beam 50s and Dana 60s and they were no challenge. I love how the cups snap in making a drop-free operation and it has a grease fitting. With the regular ball joint tools I always look like a juggler having a seizure.
 
Flivver250 said:
Daryl, that set appears much bigger and beefier in person, more so than the picture adequately portrays. It is a beast. One of the better tools in my arsenal. I have replaced the u-joints and ball joints on F250s and F350 Twin Beam 50s and Dana 60s and they were no challenge. I love how the cups snap in making a drop-free operation and it has a grease fitting. With the regular ball joint tools I always look like a juggler having a seizure.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean. I have the Matco set. I believe it’s made by OTC, it looks identical to my friends OTC, just laser etched Matco instead of OTC. And I do look like a juggler when using it.
 
I figured on just doing one set of BJ's so I just bought the HF figuring it would be a throw away and I needed one quickly and the HF store is only a half hour away. Problem is about 16 BJ's later I keep forgetting why I was going to throw away my unbent HF. Its a cheap tool , use it accordingly. Use some of the tricks to help it out some and it will be fine on our little BJs be an animal with it and the results will probably be obvious . Any one can screw up a tool if ya put enough effort into it, use your head along with the tool . Works great on swapping some U joints with DS still under the jeep . Not bad for a cheap POS .
 
I personally own the OTC kit. I have never had a problem with it. I do u-joints with it as well as ball joints. I use my impact with it and have never been afraid of it breaking. In tools, you get what you pay for! If you own a Jeep, you'll be working in it,so you may as well get a good one that will last.
 
I rented one to do the bj's in mine, it did not have the adapter for the dana 30's, after making an attempt to install I went back and rented the "master" kit that had the proper adapter. If you buy a kit without it and were good with a grinder you could make our own.

The biggest challenge I faced was getting the god forsaken rusted cotter pins out, what a pita!
 
Flib said:
The biggest challenge I faced was getting the god forsaken rusted cotter pins out, what a pita!
Click to expand...

Just shear them off with the nut if they don't want to come out. Cotter pins are soft, cut/ smash them flush, tap a socket/ wrench over the nut and twist they will shear right off.
 
I bought a Harbor Freight set a few years ago but only used it for removing bushings so basically light duty. When it came time recently to change my ball joints, I ordered the OTC kit from Amazon. 98 Jeep Wrangler and original ball joints.. don't think the HF kit would've held up to the task. I had a helluva time using the OTC kit with correct adapter set.
 
Flib said:
I rented one to do the bj's in mine, it did not have the adapter for the dana 30's, after making an attempt to install I went back and rented the "master" kit that had the proper adapter. If you buy a kit without it and were good with a grinder you could make our own.

The biggest challenge I faced was getting the god forsaken rusted cotter pins out, what a pita!
Click to expand...
Ball joints are off and pressed in. OTC kit was the best 180 spent. Period. Used it to press out the front axle shaft joints too. All these joints were the original, in the upper Midwest. Wasn’t pretty, but the OTC did great. Now Im off to install the new steering kit and front driveshaft, and hopefully this project is behind me....for now
 
04LJ said:
Ball joints are off and pressed in. OTC kit was the best 180 spent. Period. Used it to press out the front axle shaft joints too. All these joints were the original, in the upper Midwest. Wasn’t pretty, but the OTC did great. Now Im off to install the new steering kit and front driveshaft, and hopefully this project is behind me....for now
Click to expand...
Also I used the Jeep/Dodge adapter with it
 
  • Like
Reactions: jeepins
Top Bottom
Back