Well, it's come time to do put some new ball joints on my truck and I believe I'm going to replace the idler arm as well.

It seems like MOOG is preferred, so I believe I will be looking at them. I just have some questions though.

Where is the best place to buy them? Do I have an oversized lower ball joint opening? Is MOOG a good name when it comes to buying a new idler arm also? And just how hard is it to tackle installing all of these parts myself? (I do have a decent mechanical skill level) And if I installed them myself, is it safe to drive to an alignment shop?

Any and all help is appreciated.

Mickey

 

moog makes great parts. i currently have all moog joints on my truck. the only auto parts store in my area that sells them is o'reilly. as far as the install goes, if you have a jack, stands, and some tool, you should be fine. it would also be a good idea to rent a pickle fork from the auto parts store. it really helps when it comes to getting the upper joint out of the spindle. you should be fine to drive to the alignment shop afterwards.

 

The Lower Ball joint is pressed in, so make sure you rent a ball joint press and have access to impact tools. If not then your best bet is to buy the lower with control arm assembly. Moog is a very good product to go with.

 

Moog is the best, as far as I know.
The last balljoints I did, I bought online. They look great and are holding up well. But the rubber is deteriorating very fast.

I recomend just buying the upper A arm and pressing the lower out and replacing.

Just use a stick to set the toe in to drive it to the shop to get it alligned.
Be sure to center your steering wheel when you do this.

 

Thanks for all the help guys!

When looking at the MOOG ball joints online, they have two different lower joint options; one I believe is standard and the other says it fits an 'over sized opening'. Which do I have?

Is the over sized opening joint the replacement for the MOOG lower control arm and the regular is for the stock lower control arm?

Thanks for all the help again!

Mickey

 

I bought Moog (lower) ball joints from my local Checker auto parts. They also rented the press set and pickle fork set for free, just had to leave the purchase price of the sets as a deposit, 100% refunded. I definitely needed both tool sets. I dont remember having to deal with figuring out a size opening, I just provided the information for my specific truck and was basically given brand / durability options.