ball joints
 

just bought a used 97 f150 it needs all 4 ball joints, is this something best left to the proffesionals??????

If you have decent mechanical skills and/or have replaced ball joints before you should be able to do the project.

birddogone

I had a shop do the Ball Joint replacements on my 97 F150. A bit too entailing for my taste. But make sure you get lubable replacements like Moog brand. The POS stock ones are not able to be greaced.

Good Luck! :beers:

Ball joint how to (somewhat)
 

I was plaqued with the lower ball joint blues about 3 months ago. The local repair shop wanted close to $300 which included an alignment. NOT in the budget. I looked in the Ford manual for my '98 F150 4x4 and there was no procedure to replace the ball joints (false as many of you know) but just to replace the entire arm. So here's what I did:
1) jack up one side at a time, it's best to leave the three remaining tires on the ground and remove the tire/wheel (obvious) from the side your working on.
2) get all the brake related stuff out of the way and remove the large retaining clip, cotter pin and large nut from the lower ball joint and seperate the joint with a pickling fork from the auto parts store (cost $4).
3) with the knuckle removed (the half shaft will have to be taken out of the knuckle) and out of the way put a jack under the control arm and put a little pressure under the arm. Now beat the ball joint with a BFH until you can get a pry bar between the control arm and shoulder of the ball joint. As you pry, beat down on that sucker and the ball joint will eventually drop out.
4) now for the install, the trick is to get a socket that will fit over the rubber portion of the new ball joint but still give you good contact with the shoulder of the ball joint and be long enough to accomidate the ball joint stud. I think a 1 5/16" with a 1" drive is what I used. With the side your working on, on a jack stand put the ball joint inside of the socket and put it on the end of the jack (a jack with a larger pocket works best, i.e. 4 ton jack) and pump up the jack until your ball joint is aligned with the control arm hole. Keep pumping up the jack until the entire side of the truck starts lifting off the jack stand. MAKE SURE THE BALL JOINT IS ALIGNED AND NOT ****ED IN THE CONTROL ARM. With the trucks weight on the jack start hitting the control arm around but not on the ball joint. The weight of the truck and the blows from the hammer will get it done. Then reinstall all hardware, ect. Hope this helps. It took about 2 hours to do both sides. It's work but it's the cheapest way I could do it since no one in town had the correct tools.

I just replaced mine on a 97 f150. I borrowed a ball-joint press from a autozone store, you can rent the tools there for free, directions are on the box, it is like a very big c-clamp thing, ball joints go in and out like butter. Comes with different sized spacers to fit most all ball joints. no need to hammer on the thing.

Cost Estimate for Parts
 

The shop told me that I need new upper and lower ball joints($650) for my '97 F150 with 106k miles. I'm new to this 'do-it-yourself' stuff so I was glad to hear that Autozone can supply some of the specialized tools. How much should I expect to pay for the parts?

upper arms with joints will run about $70-75 each. lower joints will be about $35-40 each. if your tie rod ends are original, you might think about replacing them while you are at it. both inners and outers and adjusters will run you about $130. the idler arm may need changing also. have heard prices from $35-75 for that. like many others, i like moog. keep 'em greased and they will outlast your truck.

I replaced my lower ball-joints on my 2001 4x4 this summer; the uppers were fine. I read that the uppers should never fail; not the kind of stress you would see on the lowers.

It took 4 hours to replace. I would highly recommend getting the ball-joint press from Autozone - it's free rental.

Good luck!

I love the technical explanation: "beat down on that sucker" !
This is my kind of mechanic! Thanks for the short, and easy way to get this job done.

F150Forever

Changed the lower ball joints on my 2001 2WD yesterday. The job was a little more involved than I thought it would be. I had to remove the spindle frame to get the old ball joint out and it was a beeeach getting the ball joint to budge. The tool I borrowed from AutoZone didn't help at first, so I beat on that sucker with a ball peen hammer for a while and it finally began to move down the hole. The press tool got it out the rest of the way.

Was it worth it? Well, the shop wanted $800 to do the job and I paid $128 and that included a new idler arm. The difference buys a lot of beer and bandaids!

I'm looking at doing this same thing. In regards to the Idler Arm, they list two different ones for my 97 F-150 4x4. Moog has K8747 w/3.43" bolt pattern and K8739T w/2.48" bolt pattern. How can I know which one to order?
Also, will I need adjusters or can I reuse whatever's on my truck?

wow, is this post from the dead week?