I have a 03 Harley with 62K that just had it's lower ball joints replaced. A search showed this isn't uncommon. The range is from 8K to 80K miles or more for replacement. The extended warranty covered the cost. The warrany is good for 13K more miles. The dealer caught the problem, but didn't say anything else.

If the lowers wear out does this cause extensive wear on other parts? Are there areas or parts I should inspect? Any help would be great!

 

if you jack your truck up from the front you can inspect most of the easily breakable parts.

jack your truck up from the front and set stands either under the sway bar hoop/hump mounts in the front (the ones that go to the frame) or on the frame by the transmission crossmember. make sure your truck is supported solidly (i cant stress this enough), and the tires are drooped and off the ground.

shake the tire up and down. if it has a lot of give, then the upper balljoint is loose. grab the steering centerlink and shake. if the side near the driver is loose, then your pitman arm is loose. if the passenger side is loose then the idler arm is loose. replacing those two are easy

dont buy regreasable balljoints. for some ridiculous reason, the sealed ones last longer

 

The lower ball joints are the problem with the "Heritage" style F150's though, put a jack under the lower control arm on one side and raise the vehicle until the tire is a few inches off the ground, get a large pry bar or what ever you may have to put under the tire and genlty force the tire in an upwards motion, you will feel a large clunk if you lower ball joints have gone out, I think the spec is somewhere around .032" or so of play....we usually see them at anything past 30k, a few uppers but not that many low mileage ones

 

I need to replace the upper and lower ball joints, and probably the lower control arm bushings and tie-rods. Any suggestions on brands or sources? Are the Moog pieces as good or better than most? Napa has the upper a-arm/ball joint assemblies made by Dana and salesman said that Dana is their top-of-the-line part but they are about $25 more than the Moog pieces. Thanks,

PS I saw Socal's suggestion to stay away from the re-greasable parts

 

I got a feeling I'm the odd man out but check this out...I had one upper go bad about 45,000 miles. Replaced both uppers. 55,000 miles now and the lowers are still good. As far as I can tell anyways. This is with a 4" lift and 34" tires also. Yes, I know I should have replaced them when I was in there but still funny they're still good.

 

moog are pieces of crap

get dana they are built so much better