Hello, john Talley here with Partzilla.com.
Today I'm going to show you how to change out the ball joint on our 2009 Yamaha YFZ450R.
Pretty simple to do, Let me jump over there and gather up some tools and I'll show you
how to get it done.
Alright, this is going to be a skill level two, but not that serious.
Let's go over some of the tools that you're going to need to pull this off.
On the socket side, just a 12, 14 and a couple of different 17s.
Make sure you've got a shallow well as well as a deep well.
On the wrench side, just a 14 and a 17.
A needlenose pair of pliers, circlip pliers, a punch, a couple of different hammers, 3/8ths
ratchet, and as always, a good toque wrench.
Now, our special tools.
You're gonna like this one.
We're actually going to use an inch and a half by three threaded piece of pipe as well
as a 3/4 by two threaded pile to actually push out the ball joint.
Now listen, Yamaha makes a special tool for this.
They're not easy to attain, and I know a lot of people out on the internet just get a big
hammer and whack the hell out of it, but I'm not going to do that.
I'm going to show you a way to safely press it out so that's the way we're going to approach
it.
Now if you would, reference our exploded parts diagrams.
That's going to show you exactly how things come apart and more importantly how they're
going to go back together.
So, once you're go your tools and your parts together, I'll show you how to do it, so let's
go.
If you're doing a pre-ride inspection on your unit and you find that this little rubber
boot is cut, well eventually you're going to have to go and replace it.
Because what's gonna happen is water and dirt and mud is going to get crammed up in there
and it's going to prematurely wear the joint.
How can you tell if the joint is worn?
Well, typically you can jack up your machine, lift it up, and you'll be able to rock the
wheel back and forth.
that signifies well, I've got a joint that starting to go out.
This one's a little loose on the bottom.
Could you still keep going with it?
Yeah, you could.
but, I want to show you how to replace it so let's go ahead and do it.
We'll start off by just getting off the tire.
Alright, here's our plan of attack.
What we're going to do is actually take off the lower control arm all the way, take it
over to the press, and then press it out.
Pretty simple to do.
Just need to remove the shock, this castle nut here where the actual ball joint is, and
then these two pivot points up on the frame.
And the top of the castle nut you'll have a little cotter pin that needs to come out.
Then, we should be able to snake a wrench up there and pop it loose.
Alright next, let's go ahead and take our shock off from the bottom.
I'm going to leave that bolt in there for the time being, get these two loosened up,
and then we'll take them out and drop it down.
Tell you what, to get that to clear, we're going to need to take off that front guard.
Alright.
let's go ahead and start pulling our bolts out.
A little corrosion and rust going on there.
That's why it was trying to hold up.
There she goes.
Now, let's see if we can get that ball joint to drop out of the steering knuckle.
Since we're going to replace it, I'm not too worried about the threads.
To break it loose I used a punch to go in from above and just do a hard strike with
a metal hammer, and eventually it broke it loose.
Alright guys, we've got it off the machine.
Since this one has been on the machine for a while you'll notice that the rubber section
has been pushed down and it's kind of flanged out.
so what we're going to do is we're going to remove it, and there's just a little spring
or winding at the base, and we want to grab it and just unwind it.
We don't have to be very careful here, because like I said we will not be reusing this one.
And the new one, there's actually enough clearance to where we don't have to take it off.
You can actually feel the slop in it now.
Alright, with that out of the way, take your circlip pliers and lift that off and out of
the way.
Now, here's going to be the tricky part.
We're going to carry it over to our press and we're going to put a cup down here.
But the only place we're going to make contact is really on this side.
So it's going to try to arc up but I think we're going to get it to push through just
holding it on that one edge.
We have our quote/unquote special tools, and let's bring it over to the press and see if
we can get it to push through.
You want to be really certain that you keep everything lined up, because if it gets too
much off axis it's not going to happen.
Alright, mission accomplished, we're half way there.
The real trick here is to find a cup-- in my case I used just a piece of inch and a
half steel pipe-- to get us just barely to fit on the outside of your ball joint.
Because you don't have a lot of room to contact with the control arm.
So it's barely catching on that outside.
If it's too big, it's going to push over the edge, it's not going to push straight, and
you're not going to get it out.
This worked for me, so a little trip to the hardware store and you can get these things
pressed out.
Alright now, we just need to take the new one and press it back in.
We'll be using that same inch and a half just to keep it off of the bottom of the plate
so you can push it through.
Take your time getting it lined up right.
Alright, from here we just need to get our circlip on and then we can put it back on
the machine.
Alright guys, let's get this thing put back together.
I've just got the upper A-arm lifted up so we can get it out of the way.
Go ahead and shimmy in our lower control arm, start bolting everything back together.
I've cleaned up where that bolt was a little bit rusted, and we're going to just put a
light layer of grease on it.
When you're putting this back together, put each bolt in and just leave it loose until
you get everything in position.
Then we'll go through and torque everything down.
Let's lower the steering knuckle down on that new ball joint.
Now we can start putting up nuts and bolts on there and torquing it down.
Alright, for the ball joint, that needs to be 18 foot pounds.
And for our shock, gonna want 40 on here, and then 32 on each one of these.
The one thing we need to go back and do though is see if we've got a pass-through on the
castle nut so we can put the cotter pin back in.
Alright, with that, we just need to put the other wheel back on and get it torqued to
32 foot-pounds as well.
Alright, suspension's all put back together, the tire's on.
I almost forgot about our front guard.
Lets' go ahead and get it remounted.
Well alright guys, that pretty much wraps this one up.
Well listen, if you need any parts for your machine, why don't you come see us at Partzilla.com
and we can get you taken care of.
If you have any questions or comments, leave them in the section below and I'll do my best
to answer them.
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next video.
Have a great day.