I no longer own my f150, but a friend of mine has asked me if I could change his ball joints. I had a 2001 v6 2wd he has a 1998 v6 2wd. 1) these suspensions are the same correct?

My second question is more important. When i was changing my joints i forgot to take the O ring off on the passenger side before attempting to press it out. I ended up having to press it back in and remove the O Ring before I could press it out. I didn't realize right away what my problem was, so i pressed it pretty hard before taking the ring off. about 6 months later the same ball joint fell out when i was backing out of a parking space, after putting it back in I realized that it was a very loose fit in the control arm. I took it to a mechanic and they told me I had to replace the control arm because the hole where the ball joint goes was too wide and had been stretched somehow. I immediately remembered how I had pressed that joint so hard with the O-ring still in place, and I assume that this is the reason that the control arm was stretched. so my question is: 2) Was my fatal mistake pressing the joint with the O-ring in place?
if so then I'm confident that I wont make that mistake again, and I can go ahead and work on my friends truck, I just wanted to make sure that thats what caused it before I mess up someone else's $1000 control arm.

One more un-related question: his truck has been trying to stall out when he is stopped but in drive. when he shifts too neutral it stops bogging down and idles normally. what would cause this?

 

I personally dont think the snap ring would have damaged the control arm enough to loosen the ball joint, but i guess ya never know just dont do it again LOL. I just did my ball joints a few months back from stock and dont recall there being snap rings on my 2000 4WD. I also did my sisters 2000 2WD Expedition with no snap rings either. On the Expedition the lower C/A came with ball joint pressed in and were not much more expensive then buying the joint alone. And the uppers come with ball joints pressed as well. To me it was just easier that way, but for my 4WD the lowers had to be pressed in and out. Just remember next time to remove th snap rings first and you shouldnt have any issues.

 

Thats the only thing I can think of that would have caused it to expand. I really pressed hard on it with the press, so much that I had to use the press to push it back in to take the clip off. Any other idea on what would have caused my control arm to expand?

 

suspesnions are the same.

i have snap rings on top of my lowers on my 98 also

 

Man I dont think the snap rings would have damaged the inside of your control arm. The snap rings would have snapped and or became disfigured being they are such thin metal. It almost sounds like maybe you strated the ball joint off at a wrong angle and may have damaged the metal that way. I guess I cant say without seeing the control arms but that would be my guess.