OTC 7249 Ball Joint and U-Joint Service Kit with Case

The OTC 7249 is a C-frame press kit built around one job: pushing press-fit parts in and out without hammering on the knuckle, yoke, or brake spider. The frame is the heavy-wall version OTC uses on its truck kits, so it does not spring open and spit the screw off center when a rusted ball joint finally lets go. It covers three jobs from the same case: pressing ball joints out of and into control arms and steering knuckles, driving universal joint bearing cups out of driveshaft and axle-shaft yokes, and servicing brake anchor pins on medium-duty trucks.

The kit ships with three receiver tubes so the part has somewhere to go instead of bottoming on the frame: 2-3/4 inch ID by 3 inch OD, 2-1/4 inch ID by 2-1/2 inch OD, and 1-3/4 inch ID by 2 inch OD. Along with those it carries one installing cup, one receiving cup, and one installing adapter. That combination handles most half-ton through one-ton pickup ball joints and U-joint bearing cups in the common 1 inch to 1-1/2 inch range. Fitment is by the diameter of the part, not by vehicle year, so check the cup or joint OD against the tube sizes above before you order.

On the bench the sequence is the same every time. Clean the rust off the housing bore, set the frame so the pressure screw is dead square on the part, back the receiver tube up against the far side of the housing, and run the screw in with a breaker bar rather than an impact so you can feel the joint break loose. Reverse the cups to press the new part in, and stop the second the joint bottoms in the bore instead of leaning on it. The failure this prevents is the expensive one: a hammered yoke ear that is spread open, or a control arm bore that got egged out by a pickle fork, either of which turns a two-hour job into a new part.

Everything stores in a blow molded hard case, which matters on a kit like this because the receiver tubes are the pieces that walk off first.