Lower Ball Joint Replacement How To (lots of Pictures)

[curt1007]

Ok now that have read this great report and other messages about changing the lower ball joints I am on my way to finnaly doing mine. Got my Moog ball joints and Moog outer tierod ends from Rockauto. Today I remomved the tires and checked out the brakes and other parts there to make sure I have everything I need,also put some PB Blaster on the parts to soak in till next weekend for easier removal.Also (unrelated) I put a new AC Blower control in today to fix the auto contol problems.
Thanks for all the help here.

 

[71cutty455]

Great thread. I just tackled my upper/lower ball joints and inner and outer tie-rods and this thread along with the threads for the upper ball joints and the inner tie-rods helped a lot. I must say I hope to never have to do it again.I did want to add a couple points though to maybe help the next person...

1. No matter how hard I hammered the spindle I couldn't get it to separate from the lower ball joint. After hammering until my arms and ears were numb I decided to move to plan B. What worked for me was I hammered a pickle fork as far in as it would go then stuck a 2 foot breaker bar over the pickle fork handle and pryed down. Popped it off with minimal effort. Just hammering the pickle fork in by itself doesn't work. In my opinion much easier than banging on the spindle with a hammer until your arm falls off and doesn't cost anything really since Autozone rents pickle forks. The breaker bar that I used was just a length of approx 3/4" ID black pipe that was sitting in my basement and could be bought from Home Depot for probably less than $10.

2. The jack trick didn't work for me unfortunately. It would just start to jack up the vehicle instead of pushing in the lower ball joint. Since my arm was already dead from trying to get the spindle off hammering on the control arm to help get it in was not something I felt like doing. What I found is that contrary to popular belief the ball joint kit from Autozone can be used to install the lower ball joint. The smallest adapter in the kit is just big enough to fit over the top of the ball joint so if you place it on top of the control arm with the plate with the smaller hole on top of it kind of upside down (refer to pic) then put the middle size adapter under the balljoint with the plate with the larger hole under it and with a little finesse you can fit the press over it and you are able to press the ball joint in. You may have to undo it a couple times to make sure the ball joint is going inside the adapter on top of the control arm instead of the adapter sitting on top of the ball joint but it worked great for me. I did start the ball joint into the control arm with the jack before doing this.

Pic 1 - ball joint press installed over ball joint

Pic 2 - ball joint installed

3. Also if you are doing the inner and outer tie rods and you take them out as 1 piece (which i suggest), just remember to back off the jam nut one or two turns BEFORE removing the assembly.

 

[01slvrsprt]

Mountnaineer Green, Im about to replace my upper and lower ball joints on my 01 X Sport. I picked up moog lower ball joints but my parts supplier said there was a warning that the moog uppers might not fit stock control arms. Do you anything about this? If so, will they fit or what brand should I buy? Im putting a lift kit on it so I can begin to take it off roading so I would like to buy the better brand for better quality under the heightened abuse.

 

[carlover]

Mountnaineer Green, Im about to replace my upper and lower ball joints on my 01 X Sport. I picked up moog lower ball joints but my parts supplier said there was a warning that the moog uppers might not fit stock control arms. Do you anything about this? If so, will they fit or what brand should I buy? Im putting a lift kit on it so I can begin to take it off roading so I would like to buy the better brand for better quality under the heightened abuse.

You need the replace the entire upper control arm when replacing the stock upper ball joints. And buy Moog they are very good quality and greasable.

 

[01slvrsprt]

Thats what I was afraid of. I got a quote of about 250 bux for each side for replacement control arms.

 

[carlover]

Its very easy to do it yourself. The control arms are around 100 ea.

 

[01slvrsprt]

Its very easy to do it yourself. The control arms are around 100 ea.

Where would I be able to get Moog upper control arms? My parts warehouse wants 135 for each side.

 

[CDW6212R]

I got Summit to match the best price that I found elsewhere, about $109 and $115. Buy the one piece RH UCA, not the two piece.

 

[carlover]

Or try rockauto.com

 

[SpruceX]

I just got a it for upper/lower ball joints, tie rods and sway bar links.

I have never done any front end work before so what kind of grease do you use to lube the bushings? Or do they not need to be lubed before install?

 

[mustang66maniac]

I saw someone ask before but I didnt see an answer. I got a 98 Mazda B2500 P/U. 2wd, coil suspension. Is it the same procedure except without the cv shaft removal?

 

[Biggles]

What an easy job that was

I changed the upper and lower ball joints the weekend.
The writeup made this a breeze. Anyone with basics skills can do this.

However, I found that I did not need to remove the front brake rotor as I had easy access to the front tie rod. I also found that the ball joint removal tool from AutoZone could be configured to both push OUT and push IN the ball joints.

Great write up it saved me soooo much money that I also changed the upper ball joints as well.

Thanks

 

[timeguardian]

Great information.....easy job!

Changed complete front end in 9 hours. '96 XLT with original front end and has never been on salted roads and never been in accident. Alignment was fine before, but front end squeaked real bad and grease boots were gone. Changed spark plugs and wires while I was at it. Easy access to plugs going through the tire wells. Remember to loosen the nut on the outer tie rods before removing the any other parts...makes it easier than trying after other parts removed. Removed old lower ball joints with regular hammer...easy. Remove rubber boots from ball joints before pressing in (some come with them already installed.) Used floor jack to press in after ball joint tool from Harbor Freight broke (C clamp cracked). Didn't need the fork...simply hammered the tie rods out. Removed brakes and don't forget the ABS sensor. Removed whole unit with spindle (don't know what this is called) and I was able to repack grease in hub while I was at it. Used jack for installing the lower ball joint and it worked great...but my Explorer has never been exposed to salted roads and this may have helped. Remember to load boots with grease after installing. I paid extra attention to the notes in this post and made careful measurments and after all was finished, I drove around the neighborhood and my alignment is still perfect. Thanks for the all the advice!

 

[ai4uk]

This Saturday, I will be changing out both Lower Ball Joints on my 2001 Sport Trac.
Advance Auto parts had the TRW and OE brand for ball joints, they didn't have Moog.

TRW is $14.00 each, more than the TRW brand, is it worth buying the TRW over the OE brand?

TRW $28.00 each
OE $14.00 each

Thanks for any help.

P.S. I have already rented out the Ball Joint Press kit from Advance Auto Parts for $150.00, nice kit.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

If it were me, I'd buy nothing but Moog- I've used lesser parts and always had to change them. Its not worth the few bucks you save to go cheaper.

 

[daboss351]

My buddys got a 96 explorer sport he got for free from a family friend
went to inspect it, they said it needs a left lower, and right upper ball joint. I got the ball joint press off a family meber who runs a shop, now do i HAVE to remove the whole spindle?? I mean I think I can do it(dont think i have a big enough socket for the axle nut though) im 17 and very good with cars, any insight on this would be great! I was happy to find this write up!!

I also have to do a inner tie rod on the left side(im hopeing left means drivers side right means pass side)
any tips on doing that?? never done inners before, only the whole rack, and/or outers

 

[daboss351]

well i got the drivers lower in, and fought, drilled out the bolt, and got the section of the passenger upper control arm out only to find the ball joint is part of the arm!! and the one my friend got from pepboys was for the drivers side! so needless to say only the lower got done.
freaking damn northern cars....

 

[MountaineerGreen]

PB Blaster is your friend- spray your parts down 2-3 days prior to beginning to work at least a few times. You won't believe what it can do with time.

 

[ai4uk]

This Message board has been a great help for me to work on my Sport Trac.
Today, I replaced both bottom ball joints (TRW Brand). Took me most of the day, but I got r done. I will have to go back and replace the driver side top ball joint.
I rented out the ball joint press from advance auto ($149.99+tax).
Could not get the ball joints out with the press, so the hammer came in handy. Used the floor jack method to put them back in.

Thanks for all the input on this board

P.S. PB Blaster and my new breaker bar, is my best friends.

 

[Stang8URMPRT]

This is a nice write up. I'm a very experiance mechanic and have done these many times.

Easiest thing to get them out is just to hammer them out. To put them in, the ball joint press will work, you just have to use a piece of flat stock instead of the stepped adapter. Works perfect.

The upper control arm/ball joints are easy on the right front, but the left front gave me a little trouble with my newly purchased Explorer. The upper control arm bolts wouldn't come out because all the ABS brake lines were in the way... So I just sawzaw'd them out and put camber bolts in.

And I agree with the MountaineerGreen... MOOG is by far the only way to go. At my 5 repair shops, I allow nothing but MOOG to be sold. I would rather it be more expensive to my customers then for their suspension parts to fail in only a couple thousand miles. It saves me and my guys time, money, and labor.. Not to mention happier customers with far fewer comebacks.

Nick