Was at the dealer having some work done and while my truck was on the lift, I was called over to be shown an issue with my UCAs, both sides. The mech told me that because of the way they were designed, when the UCAs get too much play due to worn ball joints, the whole thing needs to be replaced. He told me it was essentially a design flaw that the ball joint could not be separated from the arm as it can be on the lower arm, so because of a worn ball joint which normally would be a cheap fix on any other vehicle, I need to replace both UCAs. Quoted at $694 P/L. Regardless, if I do need to replace my OEM UCAs at close to $700, wouldn't I be much better off with $650 Camburgs, or $550 Total Chaos? If that is a better option, what else would I need? Do the Aftermarkets come with the ball joint pressed in? Could I use my stock springs/shocks? Thanks.

 

the upper ball joints and control arm are all one piece. You can get moog UCAs for i think $200 for both sides. Just buy them and then do it yourself, its pretty straight forward.

 

Cool, thanks for the info. Are the Moogs reputable? I was only thinking Camburgs because for the dealer to install stock UCAs for $700, I can definitely spend $650 on Camburgs and do it myself and then later on do the Camburg coilovers.

 

Yes the moogs are good as they are greaseable. But the camburgs or total kaos would last a lot longer with that 1inch uni ball. If I were you I'd just go ahead and get them. Be sure to get an alignment after you put them on

 

$700 for factory upper arms? Geeze.

Moog is a reputable manufacturer. They sell greasable ball joints, you can buy them for cheap on rockauto.com especially with discount. Look at retailmenot.com for a discount codes.

The camburgs are a good option but they will not work if the truck is not lifted, and you have stock wheels. They have a specific wheel backspacing requirement for clearance reasons.

Also the labor should be minimal. Simply pull the wheels/tires off, remove the upper balljoint pinch bolt and separate the upper balljoint from the knuckle, remove the upper control arm bolts and remove/replace.

 

Absolutely get the Camburgs, especially if you have or plan to get larger tires. My ball joints were completely shot, so I got the Camburgs and put them on (really easy install). It reduced a lot of the bump steer from the heavy tires and it rides much better now, plus the uni-ball joints are indestructible.

 

His profile album shows factory wheels. Total Chaos and Camburg upper control arms will not fit.

Total Chaos - 4.5" or less backspacing required on all wheels to avoid contact.
Camburg - Must use wheels with maximum backspacing of 4.5″ of backspacking. OEM 20″ wheels will not fit.

The moogs are $92.79 each from rockauto.com, before discount. Take it somewhere BESIDES the dealer, labor should not be over an hour to replace both sides, and an alignment shouldn't be more than $70-100.

 

Ah, I was under the impression that he had a lift.

I have the Camburgs and my rims have 5.4" of backspacing...

 

i put some moogs on my ranger edge and then proceeded to beat the snot out of it offroad lol ...all i had was a spindle lift on it. the moogs held up great and i would def. recommend them.

 

Exactly...you can do new upper control arms and new, greasable lower Moog BJs for around $250.00 from Rockauto.com. Uppers are a piece or cake and lowers require a BJ install/removal kit which is a FREE rental from Napa autoparts. But if you have $700 burning a hole in your pocket, I don't know of a better UCA than the Camburgs...those things are beastly.

 

With a longer knuckle on a suspension lift, clearance for the upper arm is no longer a factor. Which you are obviously aware of... lol

 

Wow, thanks for all the info guys. I was not aware of the backspacing or lift requirement for the Camburgs or TCs. I had heard alot about them, mostly good. I thought I had read on several posts that the lift wasn't necessary, in fact, people were running the Camburgs UCAs and coilovers for a better 2-3 inch lift than spacers, and apparently a better ride and easier alignment. And it sounded on several threads (when there were past group buys or attempts) that people had to contact Camburg to see if they could get a set up to work with their lifts as opposed to just going from stock height to 3" with coilovers.

 

I just replaced mine this week. You need two 21mm wrenches for the uca nuts and bolts and an 18mm socket to remove the factory ball joint nut. The you have to remove the strut assembly to get the uca bolts out. The top three nuts are 15mm and the bottom bolt is 27mm but not sure on nut because I just used a crescent wrench to hold the nut still. Then hammer on the knuckle near the ball joint bolt and it should separate. Make sure you have something under the lower control arm to keep it from falling and ruining your brake line. Lower the lca enough to remove the strut and remove the uca bolts. Reverse for install. The Moog ball joint nut is 21mm. I used a pry bar to get the lower part of the strut to line up with the bolt and holes. It looks harder that it is and only took about 3 hours using jack stands and hand tools.

 

Great write up, thanks. Just got my HBS 2.5" spacers today in the mail, so now I gotta order up the Moog UCAs and lower ball joint, And I think while I'm at it I may replace the shocks and struts. Saw a decent deal, for all 4 corners Bilsteins (not 5100s) for $325 or so. Once it all comes in I'm getting to work...now that Spring is just about on us

 

Where can I find the Moog part numbers? I've searched Oreilly's, Summit, Rock Auto, Napa, Autozone, none have shown me much of anything. Summit shows the Moog lower control arms which I don't need, but no lower ball joints and no UCAs at all. I even went to the Moog independent dealer site and got nothing at all for '08 F150! Do you have the part numbers for the Moog UCAs and lower BJs? When I search Rock Auto the only BJ that comes up is the Raybestos for $38.79. And they don't list any Moog UCAs, they Have Raybestos, Motorcraft and Mevotech.