replacment ball joint, not same

[bigjoe7757]

Guys,
I bought lh and rh trw upper ball joints from advance auto parts and noticed that the rh side replacement is a 1 peice like the lh side. they are both marked, one says L and the other says R so they look right, however, the factory rh one is a two peice design. does anyone know if the replacement will work. you can see them if you go to partsamerica.com and look them up. I tryed to search but nothing matched up.
thank you for any help.

 

[410Fortune]

yes
the aftermarket did away with the two piece upper arm on the pass side

it will work just fine

 

[bigjoe7757]

thanks

 

[bigjoe7757]

guys

is the 1 peice or the 2 peice set up better.

 

[410Fortune]

2 piece just allows more adjustment for camber
its not needed really because you can add shims to the 1 piece as well and turn the camber adjuster on the upper arm.

So the answer is basically they are the same, I cant figure out exactly why Ford did a 2 piece on noe side anyways, maybe just to simplify final camber adjustment from the factory??? who knows.

 

[bigjoe7757]

thanks again

 

[jp450]

2 piece just allows more adjustment for camber
its not needed really because you can add shims to the 1 piece as well and turn the camber adjuster on the upper arm.

So the answer is basically they are the same, I cant figure out exactly why Ford did a 2 piece on noe side anyways, maybe just to simplify final camber adjustment from the factory??? who knows.

The two piece design is actually to adjust the caster not camber, which no one really does... I dont know why... They have never done mine anyways... So what is "caster" you may ask? Read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_angle Kinda interesting...

 

[410Fortune]

sorry you are correct caster

 

[gijoecam]

Indeed, it's caster, not camber. My best guess is that the passenger side was adjustable so you could set the passenger side caster to match the driver's side. My best guess is that Ford decided that the driver's side would be the 'spec', and the passenger side would be set to match it. It made one part cheaper, and the chassis guys only had to align one instead of two on the line.

That's my theory anyways...

-Joe

 

[DCExplorer]

The big advantage with the one piece control arm is that it includes new bushings. If you bought the ball joint arm for the two piece design, you only get the outer piece with the ball joint in it - and not the inner piece that has the bushings in it. For that reason alone I bought the one piece control arm when I replaced mine. Yes, I could have gone through the trouble of pressing new bushings into the old arm, but I decided it just wasn't worth the time and effort.

 

[gijoecam]

The big advantage with the one piece control arm is that it includes new bushings. If you bought the ball joint arm for the two piece design, you only get the outer piece with the ball joint in it - and not the inner piece that has the bushings in it. For that reason alone I bought the one piece control arm when I replaced mine. Yes, I could have gone through the trouble of pressing new bushings into the old arm, but I decided it just wasn't worth the time and effort.

Huh? When I bought new uppers about 4 years ago, I got the whole two-piece arm for the pass side, not just the outer half. I wasn't aware of any that cane with just the outer half, but I suppose there may have been some out there.

-Joe

 

[DCExplorer]

Huh? When I bought new uppers about 4 years ago, I got the whole two-piece arm for the pass side, not just the outer half. I wasn't aware of any that cane with just the outer half, but I suppose there may have been some out there.

-Joe

I replaced mine just a few months ago, and I couldn't find the inner piece. I admit I didn't look too hard for one. It was just easier to buy the one piece arm. I went with MOOG parts, becasue it has a grease fitting the original Ford part doesn't, and I can tell you that MOOG part #K8710T is just the outer half, despite whatever "2-piece" descriptions or photos you see on the web. I don't think MOOG makes the inner piece.

In any case, you just need to be aware that if you want to stay with a two piece design, you should be sure to either buy both pieces new, or plan on pressing in some new bushings into your old arm.