My 2000 f150 has a little bit of arthritis in the upper ball joints. Now i know that the factory built the upper control arm and ball joint together and i have located the replacement parts that are otherwise (2 peices insted of one). How much work am i in for in replacing the upper control arm. BTW the ball joint is already pressed into the new control arm.
Thanks

 

If the ball joint is just squeaking and the boot is not torn, just buy one of these and inject grease into it.

http://search.harborfreight.com/cpis...edle&Submit=Go

Just pry the plastic cover, that is over the ball joint open and take a look. Most of the time, just a few pumps of grease and in a few days they stop making the noise.

 

if all else fails, the upper control arm isnt that bad. you take a skinny wheel and lop it in two and start over.

kidding, its really the two eccentric bolts and the castle nut on the balljoint. if things wont come apart, you can typically pull the spindle off with another 5 -10 minutes of work as long as things dont struggle too much.

 

I think I paid around $60 a piece for new upper control arms...worth the price to avoid swapping ball joints only. Swapping the arm is 1/4 the work of a ball joint.

 

thanks for the advice tumba but i dont think that greasing in the joint will help at this point. There is too much play in the joint to consider that. The factory joint (I think) does not seperate from the upper control arm. My local parts store has the upper control arm with a ball joint already pressed into it. My question is how much work is involved to take the old upper control arm/ ball joint assembly out and to replace with the new parts? Do I have to take the whole wheel assembly i.e shock, spring, spindle, brakes, apart or can i just take the upper control arm? What are some of the problems i may encounter?
Thanks

Ok wait a minute i think i put the cart before the horse. I didnt read klitch's post. Thanks guys

 

i have a 2001 4x4 and i just had all the ball joints replaced to MOOG on my truck friday. my buddy did the install and said it was a pain in the a** but was well worth it. rides brand new

 

do yourself a favor, soak everything a few times, a few days before you try to remove it. use a dead blow to loosen things up before hand (and during the removal).

i personally like PB blaster, but a penetrating oil of any kind should help. i now typically use a food grade penetrating oil at work, usually gets most things moving well. you always have the option of heating the spindle