Hello,

I've been looking through all of the front-end clunking messages and haven't been able to find anything that has an exact match for my strange problem.

I have a 1995 F-150 4x4 and out of the blue (today) it started clunking when I turn (sometimes) and feels (at times) like I have a flat tire (pulling and such). I've looked everything in the front end over and nothing stuck out.

My question: Is it possible for wheel bearings to fail in one day without prior symptoms? It seems strange that it would just start acting strangly today if it were the bearings. Geez, I'm afraid to drive the thing!

 

Yes, bearings can go out without prior warning. I've dealt with this many times on the old Hiniker cultivator I run. If a seal goes out and dirt gets in there its only a matter of time until it goes out. Depending on the amount of crud that gets in there it can be very fast. To find out if its the bearings jack up the front and see if the tire has movement to it. Make sure that you're checking for bearing movement and not ball joint movement. It is also possible that the spindle nut has backed off and you no longer have any preload on the bearings. If this has happened most likely you'll be replacing the bearings. Aside from the bearings or ball joints make sure that you have checked your tie rod ends, axle beam pivot joints, and radius arm bushings. To me from your descriptions it almost sounds like you've lost preload on the bearings which will make noise during turns and the pulling symptoms since one wheel might not be tracting 100% straight anymore. Do you only notice it while turning in one particular direction?

 

Thank you for your reply. I did just what you said and jacked both sides up and tried to move the wheel. I guess I was thinking it was the bearings because I repacked them myself a couple of years ago when I changed the rotors. I don't have much confidence in my work! :-)

When I jacked the truck up and moved the wheel, I found I had quite a bit of slop as the picture shows. Wasn't the wheel bearings, but I don't think I'm going to tackle this one myself as it looks like it would be a real pain to fix. Is the circled section the axle beam pivot joints you were talking about? Is this something best left to the professionals?




Thanks again for the reply.

 

A lower ball joint going out isn't uncommon and can also cause the symptoms you described before. Having it done at a shop might end up being somewhat expensive. I had one done at a shop on my old 97 F150 (didn't have the time to fix it myself then) and it ran me almost $200. The balljoint was more expensive than one for a D44 TTB like you have, but there was less assembly to do so it evens out. This can be done for quite a bit less if you do it yourself.

To start out a lower ball joint for your truck will run you roughly $35. Autozone carries Moog joints which carry a lifetime warranty and are also greasable. The only specialized tools you'll need are a spindle nut socket (which I assume you have access to since you did your wheel bearings already) and either a ball joint press or a hydraulic press. Autozone rents ball joint presses and I think they also rent the spindle nut sockets, but I've found them to be a very useful tool to have around anyhow.

To change the ball joints heres what you do:

First jack up the truck and support it by jackstands. After you do that you'll need to remove the wheel. Once the wheel is off pull the caliper off by removing the 2 expansion clips. Then hang the caliper up out of the way. Once thats off remove the hub. After that remove the spindle nuts and wheel bearings. You can now remove the caliper/hub housing. Once you've removed that remove the 5 nuts holding the spindle on. Taking the spindle off may be a pita if it hasn't been off before. The easiest way is to take a dead blow and work your way around it hitting on it. It may take some HARD hits to get it off. You can also use a chisel to get behind the flange. Just keep in mind that you don't damage the threads, warp the flange when using a chisel, or bend the spindle by hitting it too hard. They can take some very serious blows though so don't worry about being too bashful hitting it. For a tip spray something like WD40 or PB Blaster in it to try and eat any corrosion out. If need be you can also use a torch to heat it up and burn out the other corrosion, but I'd try to save that as a last resort. Getting the spindle off is the hardest part of this. It appears to me that this is on the passenger side of the truck. This axle shaft has the slip spline on it so you can just pull the outter half of the shaft out. With that out you're ready to remove the knuckle. You will need to remove the tie rod from the knuckle first. Remove the cotter pin and loosen the crown nut till its flush with the end of the stud. Then a couple quick raps with a hammer should break it loose. Then move onto the ball joints. Remove the nut from the lower ball joint, then do the same to the upper ball joint that you did to the tie rod. When you hit it with a hammer the knuckle should pop loose. Then finish removing it from the truck. Now onto installing the ball joints. Its up to you if you want to replace both at the same time. The uppers are not load bearing so they typically last alot longer than the lowers. The only reason to do it now is you have everything pulled apart already since the uppers have to come out to install the new lowers. New uppers should run ~$25. To remove them take off the snap ring and then you can just beat them out (they will only go out one way, so beat on the end that had the snap ring on it). Now that you have that done you can move onto installing the new joints. This is where you'll need the ball joint press (looks like a c-clamp) or hydro press. I have a hydro press in my shop so I went that route. Start by pressing in the lower joint, then move onto the upper joint and install the new snap rings. On the axle beam on the upper ball joint hole there should be a threaded sleave. If its worn it should be replaced with the new on from the ball joint. You can remove it with a large screwdriver, but you will need a special socket to reinstall it. Unfortunetly Snapon and Mac are the only 2 places I've been able to find them, so I made my own. If its not worn I wouldn't even mess with it since I ended up putting mine right back to where I had the originals. Yours I would guess is fine so I'd say leave it. The upper and lower are different so make sure you install them correctly. The way to tell them apart is the lower doesn't have a cotter pin hole in the stud. I would install grease zerks in them after they're installed and then grease them. After they're greased I'd replace the zerks with the plugs that came with them. On my 77 D44 (same outters as you have) there is not enough clearance for a standard zerk at the axle shaft ears. Now you can go and install them back on the truck. There is a certain procedure to installing these. Start by torqing the lower ball joint nut to 75 lb/ft, then torque the spanner nut (the threaded insert) to 50lb/ft, then torque the upper ball joint nut to 100lb/ft. Now when I did mine it had a heck of a time getting it torqued right and finally got it close but not dead on with the torques. I'm racking that up to a misadjusted torque wrench and cheap Parts Master ball joints. After you have everything torqed and greased you can go ahead and reinstall everything.

This sounds like ALOT of work and it is, but its nothing more than a few hours if you have everything laid out ahead of time. I did all 4 ball joints on my 77 D44 in one afternoon. You can easily save a couple hundred dollars doing this yourself. You don't list a location but if you were close to me I could give you a hand since I have all the tools to do it already.

 

Wow! Thanks again for your help! With the directions you gave me, I think I'll give it a go myself and I'll attempt it tomorrow after work. It's always good to save some $$$. I like to go to Murray's for my parts and they should have the tools. They say they'll lend tools for free, so hopefully they'll have the ball joint press.

I live in the Detroit area and if you do live in the area, I'd like to buy you a few beers.

Thanks for the instructions -- and I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

Nope I live in Iowa. I was somewhat in the Detroit area about 2 months ago, but right now I'm a long ways away. The instructions I listed are a rough idea on what to do, but most of it is pretty straight forward to figure out once you tear into it. By far on mine the biggest pita (my spindles were already off so I didn't have to deal with that) was my ball joint studs would turn before I could torque anything down. Greasing them may help some, but I ended up using a dead blow to seat the knuckle onto the beam and then I tightened the upper nut down some to try and keep the knuckle seated. I was then able to keep the bottom stud from turning, then I could mess with the top. While trying to tighten down the spanner nut I couldn't get even close to 50lb ft of torque and was way past where it had been previously set so I just put it back to the original position.

 

Iowa.. You wouldn't want to drive out here would you?

Well, I'm almost done with the passenger side and was going to do them both before I found out how much work was involved. I do have one problem I was hoping you may have suggestions for. I took the nuts off the knuckle, yet the knuckle WONT COME OFF! I beat the hell out of it with a large hammer, and won't budge. I tries some Liquid Wrench and I guess it hasn't kicked in yet. What a bummer. Any suggestions?

It's on there so good, they didn't even need the nuts!

Thanks again for all your help. Everything has been exactly what you described!

 

When I took mine off my 77 D44 that hadn't been off in years (read junk yard axle so who knows how long) I did it like this. Put the castellated nut on top of the upper ball joint on until the top of the nut is even with the top of the ball joint stud. This gives you a good surface to hit on. After that break out the BFH. When I did mine I had the axle on jack stands on the bench so I had plenty of room to swing. A couple good whacks with a 3lb sledge and they popped off. Don't use a dead blow hammer here, you need something hard and heavy. If that still doesn't work use some WD40 or PB Blaster, preferably the PB Blaster. Liquid Wrench isn't any stronger than water. You want something in there that eats corrosion. Since you're not keeping the old ball joints don't be worried about hurting them.

 

I'll give the PB blaster a try; I'll run up and get some today.

Can't put the nut back on the jount as I already beat the hell out of the ball joint. :-) Typical, eh.

Well, I'm going to go out and giver another try. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Again, I don't think I'll do the drivers side until it needs it.

Thanks again, and wish me luck.

P.S. The good news is that I bought a new, big-***, beaker bar!

 

All set! Just finished up a a hour or so ago. I just wanted to thank you again for the info. Like I said, it pretty much went as you wrote. One problem though: I have a left over little bolt from the splash shield that I can't get on unless I take the whole thing apart again -- which ain't gonna happen! Oh well, I'll put it on the next time I change the rotor or something.

Have a good weekend, and thanks again for your help.

 

If you're talking about the dust shield behind the rotors thats always the first thing I throw away when I tear down an axle. On my Ranger I also threw away the dust shields that go between the spindle and knuckle, but my D44 didn't have any. All that does is provide another place for corrosion to pile up getting the spindle stuck. I'm glad you were able to get this done yourself. I hate paying to have something like this done at a shop for about 3-4x the amount I can fix it for myself. Now if you carry the parts and tools you have the knowledge to fix this along side the road should the need arise. I did many roadside fixes on my old 97.

 

Yes, that's the shield I'm talking about. It's the one lower bolt I left off. I didn't think it was a big deal, else I would have tore it all down again. Hmmm, maybe I should have left the entire thing off too. It did look somewhat nasty!

Interesting thing about saving money. While I did save money, I guess when you include the cost of time, I probably didn't save any on this job -- BUT, when I do the driver side, I'll probably be able to do it in 25% the time. Plus, I enjoyed doing it myself (after the job was complete ) and I learned a lot.

This winter, I hope to begin work restoring my 1986 Bronco II. I guess this will throw me into the thick of it all. I've always done my own work, but the Bronco II will be a HUGE job.

Onward and upward.