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How To: Replacing Upper Ball Joints on a 3rd Gen 4x4 [Pictures]

Any advice on how to get the two bolts that hold the upper control arm on? I tried with a socket to the get the left one off...wouldn't budge. Socket wouldn't fit on the right due to that vaccum or brake line right under neath...not sure what it is.

The auto hobby shop was full today, so I couldn't get in and use all the tools....tried it at home only to realize i don't have a 13/16" wrench...hence the socket.....so i was stuck.....put it all back together....will try next time at the hobby shop...but I am a little worried if can't get the right bolt off...not enough room for a socket and breaker bar....only a wrench...

Advice?
 



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Any advice on how to get the two bolts that hold the upper control arm on? I tried with a socket to the get the left one off...wouldn't budge. Socket wouldn't fit on the right due to that vaccum or brake line right under neath...not sure what it is.

The auto hobby shop was full today, so I couldn't get in and use all the tools....tried it at home only to realize i don't have a 13/16" wrench...hence the socket.....so i was stuck.....put it all back together....will try next time at the hobby shop...but I am a little worried if can't get the right bolt off...not enough room for a socket and breaker bar....only a wrench...

Advice?

It may the the brake line that is causing you trouble. I had a similar issue, and loosened a bolt holding it (the brake line) in place a bit and just moved it out of the way an inch or so, thus allowing me to use the socket wrench.
 






I used this "How to" on my 2002 Explorer, but noticed that I had plenty of room to get the C clamp on the upper ball joint without having to remove the upper control arm. No realignment required either. Just have to remove and nut holding the ball joint to the knuckle and then separating the ball joint from the knuckle. Used a mini sledge to do that. I used axel grease to lub up the hole in the knuckle, the shaft and the side of the new ball joint prior to reassembly. Found out that the handle to my floor jack could be used as a breaker bar to increase the leverage of my ratchet and socket . The old ball joint pressed out pretty easy with the extra length and the same for the new one going in.
 






Hello -first post here..... found this site to be full of good info about Explorers.... :thumbsup:

Anyhow- I bought one of the cheap autozone ball joints (they have a lifetime warranty, so why not!) and much to my surprise inside the box was a Moog joint with a grease fitting. :D

So go get your Moog joints cheap at autozone - Duralast part number FA2159... $23.99

And no I don't work there! :smoke:
 






Hello -first post here..... found this site to be full of good info about Explorers.... :thumbsup:

Anyhow- I bought one of the cheap autozone ball joints (they have a lifetime warranty, so why not!) and much to my surprise inside the box was a Moog joint with a grease fitting. :D

So go get your Moog joints cheap at autozone - Duralast part number FA2159... $23.99

And no I don't work there! :smoke:

I bought the same ones from Autozone and they are Moog. They're kind of different though, they have a castle nut with the locking pin, a grease fitting, and a ring to hold the ball joint. I can't find it at the Moog website. They seem to have the same shape as Moog K80008, but I haven't tried to put them in, so I don't know if they fit. Did yours fit?
 












I bought the same ones from Autozone and they are Moog. They're kind of different though, they have a castle nut with the locking pin, a grease fitting, and a ring to hold the ball joint. I can't find it at the Moog website. They seem to have the same shape as Moog K80008, but I haven't tried to put them in, so I don't know if they fit. Did yours fit?

Yep. Mine fit well. But I did figure out that the upper control arm needed to be removed to get it installed.... I was able to press it out with the control arm in the vehicle - but there was not enough room to press it back in unless the A arm was removed.

(sorry for the slow response)
 






I changed the UCA's on both sides of my 2002 XLS Explorer yesterday and everything went well. I had brought the truck in and veified what the dealer had said was needed and while I was inspecting it last weekend, I sprayed everything down with WD-40. The only issue I had was that the bolt sizes in the beginning of this How To didn't match. I had 20mm nuts on the UCA's and 3/4 nut on the ball joint. Maybe they had been replaced previously, but I don't think so. I mention this only to advise anyone who may attempt to do this, bring every wrench and socket size you can find.

Anyway, Rock Auto has the UCA's for $43.45, so I brought the ad into Advance Auto Parts store and they basically matched the price. It was easier/cheaper to replace the whole arm as it had a new ball joint installed with it! I also replaced the front rotors and brake pads. Took about 3-3 1/2 hours to do everything. It sure helped to have a friend who lent me his garage with a lift!

Wooohoo.

Best to all here and thanks for the great site and all the excellent pictures and advice!
 






I changed the UCA's on both sides of my 2002 XLS Explorer yesterday and everything went well. I had brought the truck in and veified what the dealer had said was needed and while I was inspecting it last weekend, I sprayed everything down with WD-40. The only issue I had was that the bolt sizes in the beginning of this How To didn't match. I had 20mm nuts on the UCA's and 3/4 nut on the ball joint. Maybe they had been replaced previously, but I don't think so. I mention this only to advise anyone who may attempt to do this, bring every wrench and socket size you can find.

Anyway, Rock Auto has the UCA's for $43.45, so I brought the ad into Advance Auto Parts store and they basically matched the price. It was easier/cheaper to replace the whole arm as it had a new ball joint installed with it! I also replaced the front rotors and brake pads. Took about 3-3 1/2 hours to do everything. It sure helped to have a friend who lent me his garage with a lift!

Wooohoo.

Best to all here and thanks for the great site and all the excellent pictures and advice!

did I read that right? $44 for the ENTIRE arm including the ball joint?

Rob
 






I have found that this tool is VERY useful for getting upper ball joints "unstuck" on my 2004 when a ball joint separator, PB blaster for several days, heat, and beating the hell out of it with a minisledge wouldn't work:

Pittman arm puller
POJ_577-4052.jpg


For lowers ball joints, I have had just as much trouble but the Pitman arm puller won't work. Instead, use a 7 ton gear puller:

Reversible-Gear-Puller-1MZP3_AS01.jpg


The Pittman arm puller fits right in there for the upper and is pretty easy to use. The gear puller takes some patience, but you can get the gear puller and arms lined up on the bottom of the wheel knuckle and press the bottom of the lower ball joint out.

When doing both, remember to put the castle nut on the very end of the ball joint. It will double as a guide for the pullers to be put into the right place and will also give you a little more surface area to press on.
 






finally did this today with complete new assemble control arms, no more squeaks, also change front struts with new complete assemblies. rides so much better, just need to do the back struts.
 






Great advise!

I would say to look at the bearing in the hub on the side it pulls (if it pulls to the left, check the left wheel). I'm about to replace my front right hub, the bearing is dragging. What happens is due to the extra drag, that wheel spins slightly slower at any given power output. That slower rotation (even slight) means that corner of the truck wants to move at a slower pace, and it pulls.

*EDIT*
Get the wheel off the ground and give a spin. You may hear it grinding. You can also grab another solid suspension component, such as the spring, and feel the grinding vibration as you spin the wheel. My front left, which does not have a bearing issue, gives no grinding or vibration in the spring, while the front right does.

Your advise it way to awsome! It makes absoulte perfect sense. I will use these techniques from now on! Thanks!!!
 






I replaced all of the ball joints on my 2003 Limited this past week, as three of the four had failed.

I bought four Moog ball joints from Rock Auto: two K8695T (lower) and two K80008 (upper), both with grease nipples.

I started by removing the wheel, then unbolting and removing the brake caliper from the steering knuckle (hanging the caliper from the spring using a coat hanger, so it didn't hang by the brake line). I disconnected the ABS wire inside the engine compartment and fed the end down through the upper control arm and out of the way. The brake rotor then pulls off easily and can be put aside.

I then took some PB Blaster (penetrating oil) and doused all of the ball joints, bolts and nuts that I would be removing - this stuff works best if you do it a couple hours before, then give it another dose before you start.

After removing the upper ball joint nut from the ball joint stud, removing the upper ball joint from the steering knuckle was a task. I broke a cheap two-jaw puller attempting it at first. After I bought a new two-jaw puller, I put it in place pushing upward on the ball joint stud and tightened it, then inserted a ball joint fork in between the ball joint and the steering knuckle. A good whack on the fork, and the ball joint popped out of the steering knuckle - the fork on its own wasn't enough, the puller on its own wasn't enough, but the two together did the job.

I was using the Harbor Freight Ball Joint kit to press out the ball joints - before starting, I greased the threads of the puller - a good idea.

Putting the press on the upper ball joint, I drove it home with my impact wrench, and my worst nightmare occurred - the rusty upper control arm came apart instead of the ball joint coming out.

I stopped and went inside to order a set of new upper control arms from Rock Auto: A Dorman 520288 and 520287 for left and right. The new control arms come with ball joints installed, so I kept the Moogs I had already purchased as spares.

Waiting for the control arms to arrive, I got back to work. I removed the existing control arms, keeping track of which shim went on which stud. While the control arm was out, I used the extra clearance to get to work on the lower ball joint. The cotter pin holding the castle nut in place was rusty on both of my wheels - one took about 20 minutes to get out, the other one took over half an hour. After almost half an hour of pounding, drilling and picking at it, I decided brute force was called for and used an air chisel to destroy the half of the stud and castle nut holding the rusty cotter pin. My impact wrench then made short work of removing the castle nut.

I used a three-jaw puller and my trusty ball joint fork to pop the ball joint free of the steering knuckle. I removed the spindle nut and pulled the steering knuckle free of the half shaft. Once the half shaft was removed from the knuckle, I got the knuckle free of the lower ball joint stud. I used another coat hanger to hold the steering knuckle in place while I worked on the lower ball joint.

I removed the snap ring from the lower ball joint, and it then pressed out easily with the ball joint press and my impact wrench. If you don't have an impact wrench, I recommend you buy one - or a large 1/2" drive bar and some painkiller rub for your muscles.

I put the new Moog ball joint in place and drove it home with the press - keep in mind that it has a specific orientation. I put its new snap ring in place, installed the grease nipple, and pumped some grease into the joint.

After I fit the knuckle over the new lower ball joint stud, I greased the spline on the half shaft and inserted it into the hub. I installed the new castle nut onto the lower ball joint stud and torqued it to spec, then inserted the new cotter pin.

I then maneuvered the new upper control arm into place, put the old shims on its studs, and bolted it into place. Inserting the new upper ball joint stud into the knuckle is easy, and I then bolted it into place - make sure you use a wrench to hold the stud so that it doesn't rotate as you tighten the nut.

I secured the hub so it wouldn't rotate and then installed and torqued the spindle nut. Next I and reinstalled the brake rotor and caliper. Lastly, I reconnected the ABS wire.

The alignment was obviously ridiculously out after replacing the ball joints and control arms, so I had the truck re-aligned.

Some hints:

- An impact wrench is almost a necessity, in my opinion

- Have quality two-jaw and three-jaw pullers on hand

- Have a ball joint fork available

- You will need 18mm sockets and wrenches - this size is commonly omitted from wrench and socket kits, so make sure you have it on hand before starting

- Have a 29mm spindle nut socket on hand - these are next to impossible to find in stores, so you might need to order one in advance

- You WILL need a torque wrench capable of measuring at least 150 ft-lbs (200 is better)

- You should probably use 1/2 drive sockets for this job - a lot of the nuts require a lot of torque, and 3/8 drive sockets are really not up to the job
 






I wish my truck stayed that rust free, Canada is hard on trucks.
 






I have have replaced Ball-Joints on other ford cars and trucks that I have owned. This helps big time with all the detailed photos. I am sure taking all the pics slowed you down a bit...but the rest of us thank you very much.
 






Nice write-up!

:DThanks so much for taking the time out to post this job.
It really helped me in forseeing the project time wise. Had it complete in 2-1/5 hours! And the loaner tool list was dead on!!!
 






Was planning on knocking this out today, but I picked up the lower ball joints instead of the uppers yesterday. So I returned them and to my surprise they arent in stock and I will have to wait until Friday.

But I wanted to provide you guys with an alternative location to check for ball joints.....summitracing.com has the auto extra brand ball joints for $15.95 a piece. The lowers that I had by mistake appeared to be really quality pieces and I would imagine the uppers should be as well. I had summit bucks so I put that towards the purchase. Cheap enough for me to give it a shot....say what you will, but I got both for much less than 1 Moog.

And I know that it has been said earlier in this post, but it had been my experience that the majority of Autozone/Duralast brand suspension parts have been manufactured by Moog.

Just some food for thought.
 






Bump/Update

Finally got around to tackling this project today. Thanks OP for doing the write up... it helped greatly!

Also Id like to see the ones who said they had pressed the ball joint in while the control arm was still on the vehicle! That was a pain in the ass! I had no choice but to remove the control arm and remove / install the ball joint with it off of the vehicle.

Took longer than I anticipated, but it was worth doing it myself. I also knocked out the wheel bearing replacement (2nd one same side), the sway bar end links and sway bar bushings.
 






update
I replaced mine today leaving the upper control on. It was no hassale at all. it all depends on the type of press your using. I did mine in a full auto garage so we had a full variety some fit some didnt. Also caution to all that are heating the ball joints. Make sure you use protective eye wear. I put a torch to the lower control arm around the bj. Like many have said they have done. I gave it about 5 whacks with a 3lb hammer. Nothing moved as i turned to put the hammer on my cart Bang, boom, ding, The ball joint head stayed in but the bolt flew or more like shot out of the assembly. The force and sound were so great i was stunned for 5 seconds and ears were ringing for a good 20 minutes. I felt the the wind force blow through my 2 tshirts, wifebeater, and a sweatshirt.The bolt is yet to be found. I used the mevotech brand from rockauto i hope they hold up well. Any one have a long term update on this brand please chime in.
 



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