Not necessarily. My lowers are still original at 122,000 and they're fine. I know because I'm paranoid abou it due to the mileage so they've been checked several times. Everything else on my front end has gone out, but the lowers have held in there.

 

I unloaded the ball joints by jacking up the lower control arms to check the ball joints. I used a shovel handle under the tire to lift on it and was able to see about 1/8 inch of play in the lower ball joints. I pulled in and out on the top of the tire and the top ball joints felt tight. So this leads me to belive that just the lowers are bad? Is 1/8 inch of freeplay bad enough for replacement? And thanks again for steering me in the right direction!

 

As I recall, Ford says 0.032" is the limit of service, and 1/8" is like 0.125" .... nearly 4 times what Ford says?

If I had 1/8" of deflection in the lower ball joints, I'ld slip some new ones in. I'ld do both sides while I was at it. They carry the weight.

 

I have 130k on my lower BJ on my red truck, they were tight last time i checked them around 105k

uppers were done at 105k

 

Try a pair of vice grips on the top of the shaft to hold it...Try PB Blaster and work the nut back and forth on the shaft...then tighten it up. You could remove the nut when you free it up and put some antisieze on the shaft...

 

From Bilstein ~