Well I think it's time to replace my front axle knuckle ball joints 😞

 Hopefully someone can shine a light on which ones held up or not.

 Local napa has some in stock, napa premium, lifetime, whatever that means? who makes them?

They're pretty proud of them for

$100 apiece although I'm sure there's more expensive ones but that's about as much as I want to pay.

  I know Spicer is a good brand, been looking for the #708047 upper and lower kit but I'm having trouble finding any in stock or discontinued.

 Thanks for any help!

 

Bring your truck to me and I'll do the job and get pictures. Solution to that problem. Being I know how to make my ball joints last.

On 6/25/2021 at 7:46 PM, dripley said:

Well just to cloud up the muddy water I put MOOG on mine 10 years ago when everyone said they were junk and they still function well. Maybe I got mine before federal mogul bought them our. They were 50 bucks each back then but turned out well for me. I have no idea of the quality now. I would definitely watch for the Spicer. They have some parts that are not up to the task. Ask @Me78569 if I am not mistaken he went thru some bad ones. The 01's and 02's can be harsh on ball joints. 

 

Me, I would have to go with MOOG with the experience I have with ones on mine. Probably get a lot of flack on this one.

Just had a local shop change out upper/lower ball joints along with some other stuff. I've used these folks before and have come to trust their work. I'm not a big fan of MOOG anything but they strongly recommended MOOG ball joints for my rig (maybe because mine's 2WD not 4...don't know) and I went with their advice. OEM's where shot but made it almost 200K miles.

2 hours ago, MikeH said:

Just had a local shop change out upper/lower ball joints along with some other stuff. I've used these folks before and have come to trust their work. I'm not a big fan of MOOG anything but they strongly recommended MOOG ball joints for my rig (maybe because mine's 2WD not 4...don't know) and I went with their advice. OEM's where shot but made it almost 200K miles.

I guess you can the guinea pig on their newer stuff then. There is a difference in the 2 vs 4 wd. The late models anyway. IIRC the uppermand lower do not line with each other and thats part of the problem. Maybe someone else could explain it. I have just come accept over the past,20 years and dont give it much thought any more. The MOOG's in mine have outlasted the oe by 50k so far so I am happy with MOOG.

4 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Bring your truck to me and I'll do the job and get pictures. Solution to that problem. Being I know how to make my ball joints last.

 

 Are you saying you're willing to donate your time for educational purposes 😉

 Unfortunately I have more time on my hands than money.

 

3 hours ago, MikeH said:

Just had a local shop change out upper/lower ball joints along with some other stuff. I've used these folks before and have come to trust their work. I'm not a big fan of MOOG anything but they strongly recommended MOOG ball joints for my rig (maybe because mine's 2WD not 4...don't know) and I went with their advice. OEM's where shot but made it almost 200k miles                                  

 

Also on the 4x4 I guess it doesn't help that the upper ball joint isn't load bearing and just acts as a king pin?, and then some bean counter thought it would be a great idea to actually decrease the mass of the lower one starting in 2000?

5 hours ago, dieseldon said:

Are you saying you're willing to donate your time for educational purposes 😉

 Unfortunately I have more time on my hands than money.

 

I'll educate you... Then you can do the same thing. Since its only 105*F here today it isn't happening to quickly at this rate. Too damn hot period!

2 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Since its only 105*F here today it isn't happening to quickly at this rate. Too damn hot period!

 

Being you are land locked, what humidity went with that? Northeast is in a heat wave, the metorlogical definition of above 90* for 3 days.. cooler than a lot of you but still, but its only about 90* but with 70* dew points..

 

Only gone as far as Florida and Virginia for south and up to Maine for north. Never been out west. Curious about how the climate is out there.. 

 

My brother went to Vegas and it was 110-115 but he said you never felt the sweat because it evaporated so quick.

 

Back on topic..

8 hours ago, dieseldon said:

Also on the 4x4 I guess it doesn't help that the upper ball joint isn't load bearing and just acts as a king pin?, and then some bean counter thought it would be a great idea to actually decrease the mass of the lower one starting in 2000?

 

All this and the joints are neither parallel nor inline with their counter part. Exaggerated it looks like this I believe:

 /     \

  I    I

 

Supposedly they are also not much larger than a cj7's ball joints. Because of the fake kingpin like design i believe that is part of the reason that the lever under the tire for up and down movement is a false indicator for the top (i think?) Ball joint.. 

 

@Mopar1973Man (<-- cant delete.. sorry Mike!)

3 hours ago, Silverwolf2691 said:

cooler than a lot of you but still, but its only about 90* but with 70* dew points..

 

You make a good point here.  Portland, Oregon set an all-time high temperature today - 115° - and not even in July or August.  The 115° recording was with air at a dewpoint of 51° and 12% relative humidity.  So, yes, very hot, but sweat would readily evaporate and cool you.

 

3 hours ago, Silverwolf2691 said:

All this and the joints are neither parallel nor inline with their counter part. Exaggerated it looks like this I believe:

 /     \

  I    I

 

Good example with your drawing.

 

- John

11 hours ago, Tractorman said:

 

You make a good point here.  Portland, Oregon set an all-time high temperature today - 115° - and not even in July or August.  The 115° recording was with air at a dewpoint of 51° and 12% relative humidity.  So, yes, very hot, but sweat would readily evaporate and cool you.

 

 

   Though not as hot as Portland, 104* here around Boise area,

Yep, the sweat was evaporating so fast that I had to put on a scarf and mittens 😂

 

 

5 or 6 days straight with the rain here and dew point in the 70’s, I'd trade you for the 115 degrees, especially with dew point in the 50s. The one year I have zero garden. The compost heap looks awesome, though! Radish tops took off like weeds, so my get a lot of volunteer radishes next year if the seeds take. And the seeds from my kid's pumpkin from last Halloween are DOMINATING! Just growing in last fall's chopped up leaves.

My 40+ year old Ford with a king pin Dana 60 still drives better than my dodge ever did. It looks like the new Ram has copied the Fords front suspension now but removed the rear leaf springs. I have a bad ball joint now and a sloppy u joint but it's too hot to fix it right now.

 

I too will be on the ball joint hunt soon and replacing leaking axle seal. I'll be lurking... I mean watching... for these choices...

Well I got one side done a couple days ago, my advice, if you haven't done this before and don't know the history of vehicle like myself and have ANY disposable income, pay or trick someone else to do it!

 I've done a fair bit of basic suspension work in my 30+ yrs. of prior professional auto body, but I was reminded why we sub'd out most suspension work out as a general rule, complete different skill set and complete different tool box, dirty, nasty, pain in the a$$, etc, etc!

  I didn't want knurled one's either, the one's I ordered from rock auto CLEARLY showed non knurled, too bad you can't actually speak to a human there.

 After some investigation at some local parts stores it seems it's almost impossible to get both non knurled? FYI, Spicer discontinued as of Jan. Feb. of this year.

 I ended up taking several days so far working a little at a time up to this point partially because of heat and because of pain.

 I rented a ball joint press and of course it doesn't have the right size cups, I had a piece of pipe lying around that was really close to the right size, I just ended up grinding the threads out, (1/4in on long, all on short) with a die grinder and carbide bit.

The top one is for taking out,(receiving) short one was for pressing, should have been a tad longer, but that's what I had.

 

This is the best YouTube video I've found on the best way to do this job with the proper tools, if you have a couple grand lying around or plan on doing this for a living, worth watching regardless.

 

 

 

Not sure which was worse, getting the hub to break loose or the ball joints? I'm fairly sure this is the first time on my truck and it was a SOB from start to finish!!

I am pretty sure mine was stuck worse than most for some reason, I've heard anything from falling out after pulling bolts to pretty dang stuck, mine was fused solid, proceed at your own risk!

 After watching some videos and trying the socket extension/steering wheel hack with no luck it finally cracked loose with a seven ton jaw puller on the axle and a six ton hydraulic jack between hub and track bar bracket, and extension on other side, also leaving my track bar bracket bent and ruined extension!

 Then pressing joints in and out, my fairly new snap-on half inch impact gun with 165psi  barley touched it, ended up using breaker bar and four ft. pipe, BFH, air hammer.

  Can't wait to do the other side!!

Sounds very much like my first experience with replacing the unit bearings. Brute force was the primary tool. 

I used anti sieze on all the parts when reassembling. So by the time ball joint replacement came diassembly was a piece of cake. Removing the ball joints was not. I ended up beating the lowers out with a socket and a brother.

Edited July 7, 20213 yr by dripley

On 6/27/2021 at 6:43 PM, Mopar1973Man said:

Ball joint press from Harbor Frieght. Don't over load the press but with some hammer blows you can shock them out. Still like my previous method which I kind of tried. After using heat I had a ball joint explode spitting the ball stud out. Then burned a hole and relief cut the cap with a hacksaw and tap of a hammer it fell out.

   I cheated when it came to ball joints and let my favorite shop do the job. I prefer doing my own work but have my limits. Anyway, this particular shop STRONGLY recommended Moog ball joints for my rig. Wouldn't have been my choice but the father (owner) who runs this shop along with his boys said he'll put in whatever I want but if it was his rig Moog's would be going in. So far with a few thousand miles on no issues. I do like the fact that I can grease them. OEM's were sealed.

Next set I do I'll cut the top off and push the ball stud out. Them relief cut the cap strike once and it will fall out. Just need a hot wrench or cut off wheel.

Way I do it is get down to the hard part, drink coffee while starring at it I call MoparMan 50 times. Works every time.

Edited July 9, 20213 yr by JAG1

Well, I decided to tackle the passenger side today, while still a PITA, POS,  it was much easier the second time around, knowing what's involved and what to expect.

Only took a couple hours when there's not a lot of trial and error, and already made/have the right size cups for press.

 Also went straight to the bottle jack to break loose the knuckle, definitely would have broken something if I just used the steering wheel like some videos showed lol!

  Now that it's lathered in anti- seize should be a piece of cake next time 😂

Sorry i missed this or id of come and helped. 

 

Couple hours easy peasy .  trade you my labor for your labor later on for some color on the ford.

 

 

For what its worth im running napa ball joints. One was bad in the box one went bad after a month or so. But i havent changed it yet.

 

Also put cheap ball joints in my jeep i barely drive the thing and all went bad inside a year. Those were from auto zone.

 

My truck is fine with a bad ball joint but it bugs me. I need to tear it down but. Id probly pull all 4 and be done with the napa cheap junk. Or just the one. Now if Warranty payed for labor and garunteed a lasting part is be all over it.