My next project is ball joints on the 4.2l v6. They ate starting to squeak pretty bad especially on sharp turns. Do i need to get the bracket with rubber bushings in or can i just press old ones out with loner too and insert new bushings? I guess i need new shocks while in there? Anything else in missing or any pointers?

 

Are you sure it's the ball joints squeaking?

I'd do the job right and rebuild the whole front end.

 

Maybe some else can chime in on this but the bushings are a big pain in the you know what.
I did the cheap route on my 04 and just purchased the upper control arms and the lower ball joints and bushings to save money. That was a big fat mistake. After fighting the bushing for half a day, I took it to a shop to press out and install the new bushings. That cost me the difference between the parts and the lower control arm. That is not counting the time I wasted during the whole process.
I just replaced the uppers and lowers on my 06, the process went way quicker and a lot less *&^%$ being said.

While in there consider replacing the struts .

 

If it is like my 02, the lower ball joints can be pressed out but you need a tool. i understand that it is a loaner tool at the auto parts stores. Since I'm a tool collector, I bought my own. There are plenty of videos on the web showing you how to do it.

 

Thanks for the replies and info. Im looking online and found the following:

front upper left and right Control Arm
front lower left and right control arm

These come with bushings / ball joint assemblies
This came out to just under 350 with shipping.

It will be another 159 for struts and coils. Im hoping I can get away with the control arms and do struts another time. Would the control arms fix cover the ball joints and squeaking? or am I missing anything?

I still have a rear main seal leak to fix, so Im trying to do these repairs in steps over time. Thanks again for your feedback.

 

 

With the cost of the alignment, you may want to consider doing it all at the same time. The tie rod ends and stabilized links are the other items to insure are in good condition.
You will have to bring it to the shop for alignment each time you replace any of these items.

 

I'm curious if from the attached pics if the ball joints just need replacing and the control arms are fine? I cant see anything bad but the ball joints.

 

You should get a knowledgeble mechanic to check the front end and tell you what you need to replace.

 

The uppers only come with the control arm. Like stated above have someone check the bushings on the lower and you may be able to just replace the ball joint. That will save some money and time.

 

Most of the local shops are quite expensive even for simple quotes. It cost nearly 100 bucks just to find out my alternator was bad, so I'm trying to save some money and learn a few things here.

 

I just rebuilt the whole front end on my 07. Your truck is 12 years old, yours is probably due too. Your ball joints look shot, no doubt. The upper one can't be pressed out, you need to replace the entire control arm. To replace the entire control arm you need to remove the struts. If your gonna go through that much trouble to replace the BJ you might as well replace the struts at the same time. I went with the Monroe quick struts (shock and spring in one), saves a lot of time and you don't need to rent a spring compression tool. Rides great too, see how long they last.

The lower BJ can be pressed out. You'll need to rent a tool to do it, but it'll save you from buying the entire control arm. And while your at it, you might want to replace the outer tie rod ends at this point too. They aren't too expensive and it'll give you piece of mind that everything is new. Same thing with sway bar links. I went with all MOOG parts, don't want to do this again for another 10 years.

I completely replaced my control arms and the old bushings looked to be in pretty good shape. You might be in the same boat, yours look kind of like mine. The only thing I didn't replace was the inner tie rods, those don't usually fail unless you get hit or the boot tears.

Don't forget your gonna need an alignment when this is all said and done, that's why you want to get all this done at once. You don't want to keep going back to get an alignment every time you replace one part. Do it all a once.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I changed my upper control arms that came with bushings and ball joints. Did struts and shocks as well, and lower ball joints and tie rod ends. My lower ball joints look funny because there is no dust boot, or very little of one. So there's like an inch of space showing on stud then the castle nut.


I thought i messed up and squished the boot up in metal cylinder but my ball joints look that way from moog so i think I'm good there. Now to get alignment done. Thanks again for the info.