?'s on ball joints
 

I have a '97 F150 s/c, 4.6L, 4X4 with 130K miles. Both my right and left side upper and lower ball joints are in need to be replaced. My question is, do I go to the Ford garage and buy ford replacement parts or do I try aftermarket parts. Which parts are better quality. Ford vs aftermarket. If the aftermarket parts are better, which aftermarket products would you recommend? Keep in mind the upper control arm needs to replaced with the upper ball joint. Thanks for all of your help.:beers:

MOOG would be your best option for replacement steering and suspension parts. They're heavy duty and also come with grease fittings. You can buy MOOG parts at NAPA.

Upper Ball Joint "Left" W/Control arm and bushings:
P/N K8722T

Upper Ball Joint "Right" W/Control arm and bushings:
P/N K8724T

Lower Ball Joint W/Grease Fitting:
K8695T

If I were in your shoes I would definately take a hard look at the "non-Ford" service options. A guy I work with just got his Expy out of the Ford service dept earlier this month. Cost to replace both front ball joints and do a front end alignment: $760. And... he got the same Ford non-greasable joints that failed after only 57K miles.

You 100% sure that your upper ball joints are bad? They're not load bearing joints so they don't fail as often as lowers do, thus thats the reasoning I guess behind Ford making them as part of the upper A-arm.

I agree with Powerstroke the upper ball joints are nonload bearing joint and should not need replacing. When I had my lowers replaced about 2 years ago I asked the shop I had the work done at about my uppers and he told me they will not need to be replaced and should not wear out due to them not being a load bearing joint so if a shop told you they needed replacement I would suggest you go and get another opinion. As for what brand of ball joints to go with I say MOOG they are good and at least they have a grease fitting on them unlike the FORD ones.

Richard D.

While your here check out my gallery:
https://www.f150online.com/galleries....cfm?gnum=2479