I could write a more descriptive How-To if there was interest for it, but wanted to show some pics from the ball joint replacement I did yesterday. Replaced the upper and lower's with MOOG ball joints. The upper comes pre-pressed in a brand new control arm. Actually seems to be "beefier" than the stock one


Old vs. New bushings


Old:


New, with grease fitting in place

 

Hey R1Jester! Those are some sweet looking control arms you`ve got there, that makes me wish I had replaced my old ones when I had mine tore down but, oh well its a little late now

 

I would definitely be interested.

 

You done with it yet Jester ? Yea , I wanna see those Moog lowers

Post up buddy

 

Where did you get control arms and what brand ? They look pretty sturdy and would like to find some for 05 . Boyd

 

They are Moog brand. Just about all the parts stores carry them.

 

I need to do this soon and would be awesome if you did a list of tools needed, pictorial tutorial and approx. time and skill involved and what needs to be done after the job, front end alignment or anything like that.

 

x2 Great mod! Almost makes me look forward to my ball joints giving out! Are you getting an alignment?

Hey Ben - you've got to be really itchin' to do this, now

 

Hey guys....got the ball joints from Summit. Upper and lower Moog's. I'm awaiting my new tires, which should be here in the next day or two, then I will get an alignement done. I'll try to post up a better tutorial tomorrow. In all honesty the first one took me about 4-5x times as long as the second one did! I think I finished the second side in about an hour. Once I had the tools all out and ready to go, it was a breeze. Some quick things that I can think of:

-I froze the lowers for a few hours before hand
-Uppers are side specific(make sure you order drivers side and passengers side)
-Grab some new cotter pins, they come with the ball joints, but you'll need them for the axle nut
-I was able to change mine without removing the tie rods
-The ball joint tool was needed for the lowers, uppers are all ready pressed in
-Pneumatic tools helped quite a bit
-Torque wrench
-Various sockets from 8mm all the way up to 36mm (the 36 was a bit big for the axle nut, but it was all I had)
-Zip ties to hold the caliper up and to hold the axle out of the way
-Grease gun with axle grease, the ball joints come pre-greased but they can use some more

If you have a pretty good mechanical apptitude and some patience you should be able to handle this on your own. I had read through my Haynes manual and a tech article that was posted by another guy on a different forum, just as reference. Basically so I knew what I was getting into. Once you take your time on the first side, you'll learn what needs to be done in what order. I did things like this.

1.Remove cotter pins from axle nut, upper and lower ball joints.
2. Loosen the axle nut
3. Loosen the upper and lower ball joint castle nuts, but do not remove at this time.
4.Mark the washers and bolt placement on the frame for the UCA. Loosen the UCA bolts at the frame, remove from frame
5.A few good whacks with a hammer and it popped right out. ( I should mention that the night before I hosed everything down with some WD-40.
6.Very light tap with hammer on axle face, to help unseat it, it should be able to move by just pushing it after that.
7. Remove the castle nut from the lower ball joint.
8. A few more good whacks on top of the steering knuckle and it will drop right off, so be ready for it.
9. It's a bit of juggling act but you can manuever the axle out with out removing the tie rod, it's tight, but possible

10. Removing the lower ball joint can be tricky. I used a hammer and a piece of solid steel smaller than the ball joint face. It dropped out after about 5 hits.
11. Reverse order time now, replace the lower ball joint using the correct tool, a ball joint press. This made very short work of a otherwise seemingly impossible task
12. Juggling act again, insert the axle back into the knuckle while getting the lower ball joint threads through the bottom, finger tighten the nut.
13. Place the UCA arm ball joint in the top of the knuckle and finger tighten the nut the align the bushings at the top of the arm and push them into the frame where the old ones were.
14.At this point I replaced the axle nut, hand tight and torqued down on the ball joint castle nuts, and inserted new cotter pins.
*The trick to the castle nuts is to get them tight to where there is some resistance, then move them in small increments until the holes line up. DO not tighten a castle nut and then back it off
15.I hand tightened the UCA bolts in the original spot and then replaced all the brake hardware and put the tire back on.
16. I lowerd the truck until the tire just had enough pressure on the tire, and I torqued the axle nut to the correct spot and placed a new cotter pin in.
17. I also torqued the UCA bolts at this time, triple checking to make sure they were in the right spot.

The whole time I worked on the truck I had two sperate stationary jacks and the hydraulic jack underneath the truck, can't take chances when you are pushing and pulling on some tough bolts. If you guys have any questions, let me know I'd be glad to help out and take some more pictures if needed!

 

Can you do mine??

 

You live near Northern IL?

 

Relatively close. Champaign, IL.

 

If you feel like trying them yourself, I could help talk you through it. Otherwise, if you really felt like driving all the way up here, we might be able to work something out. For that though, it might be cost effective to find out what a local shop would charge you to do it....with gas prices these days, it might be cheaper than driving!!

Tom

 

The upper moog ball joints are just replacements for moog control arms, right? Am I better off just buying the control arm and ball joint combo and replace them all, or can I find a ball joint that will fit OE control arms. Sorry, kind of stupid with this topic...

 

I just looked at my upper boots and they are dryyyyyyyyy. There's no grease in them whatsoever.