ball joint job at sears...

[jedi1979]

Hello...
this is my first post and fi would like to say that i found a lot of useful info here and i thank all of ya...I have a 1993 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer 4WD with 121,000 on it...I just had the tranny replaced a month ago at lee myles (at least i have a year warrenty with it )...2 weeks after that i got new tires (goodyear wrangler radials) at walmart for 240 installed and lifetime balance, rotate, road hazard...which i thought was a great deal
Last week i went to Sears to get an alignment cause it was slightly pulling to the right and they couldnt do it cuase they inforemed me i needed ball joints on the drivers side and he showed me as well...all together to fix this it would have been 420 with the alignment...so i figured ok i can do this since i am pretty handy with cars...i went to autozone got my parts and the tool and went to work...of course i didnt figure in the amount of rust under there and i got stuck at the spindle...I could not get the damn thing off if my life depended on it :fire: ...I also stripped the pinch bolt and broke one of the cotter pins holding the bottom ball joint in place....so i gave up, put it back together and took it to sears...turns out that when they gave me the quote before they had the wrong parts listed dana 28 instead of dana 35 and i informed them of that and what a price difference...so all together it cost me $317 for upper and lower ball joints installed with an alignment...which to me sounds pretty damn good considering all the damn rust under there plus i get anice little warrenty and they did it in 2-3 hours...other places were trying to charge 400 and thats without the alignment...now of course if my wheel falls off i will let you guys know ...anyway this was my first post...id like your opinions...Thanks

 

[Bill Kemp]

jedi1979, Welcome to the site.
Ball joints are one of the few fixes I leave to the pros. $300 or so is a good price. Sounds like your ready for another 100K.

 

[X~FACTOR]

Nice to see threads with happy endings once in a while. Just so you know, not too many members here are happy with Sears service. So you just gotta watch out for that. Make sure you inspect their work afterwards.

Welcome aboard, Jedi!

 

[jedi1979]

i agree with that

Sears can be shoddy at times but at least they have guarantees so they just keep fixing it...i have a 69 chevy impala and i was getting a tire fixed since they put the wrong valve into it and it blew on me and as i am standing there watching the guy pulls it out and revving it like its a racecar and blew one of my belts!!!! Any way i run over screaming at the guy and hes just looking at me dumbfounded and the boss comes over with a few new belts in his hand already to replace it...i told them if my engine freaking goes soon or if there is a new noise that has developed i would be pissed and somebody will get their ass kicked :fire: ...at the time i had just got the car and i was planning on rebuilding the engine anyways but i didnt tell them that...also when i was getting tires on new smoothies for the Chevy...the kid bent the rim and tried to hide it with balancing tab....as soon as i saw it they ordered me a new rim to replace it...so if they screw up they are likly to make good on the problem...there are two things i like about sears...if you argue with them over something long enough you will usually get something out of it and of course Craftsman tools and their wonderful Lifetime guarantee

 

[The"X"]

Never knew anyone that had an alignment done at Sears without needing some parts first.

 

[jedi1979]

actually i did need the upper and lower ball joints on the drivers side but surprisingly that was it

 

[Robert]

Never knew anyone that had an alignment done at Sears without needing some parts first.

My '97 didn't need any parts to get it correctly aligned by Sears after I replaced my ball joints.

 

[Ford_Racing_Guy]

i took everything apart myself and then took the spindles in to have the balljoints pressed in,

then after i put it all back together i took my Ex in for a alignment,

it would have costed around 720 bucks to have all 4 balljoints installed and aligned,

in the labor book, they listed time for one side to removed the balljoints was 3.5 hours!
so thats 7 hours labor just to have the balljoints installed, plus 40 bucks a balljoint then the alignment and the bushings,
i said screw that i did most of the work myself and saved a bunch of money

 

[jedi1979]

Are you talking about the knuckle? without getting the spindle off i dont think i can get the knucle off...Im pretty sure the spindle was the part i couldnt get off where the rotor is mounted to...anyway i wish i could have done it myself and if it wasnt for all that rust im sure i would have been able to...The one thing i hate is having to take it to have a mechanic fix it...when i know i can usually do it myself...believe me i would have been still trying possibly if gas wasnt so damn expensive and my chevy got more then 10 mpg

 

[Ford_Racing_Guy]

you got a helluva deal 4 balljoint and alignment for 317 bucks!


like i said above they quoted me(not sears a diff shop) 720 bucks!!! which was mostly the labor charges!

 

[Gary Steeber]

you got a helluva deal 4 balljoint and alignment for 317 bucks!




I think he said he had the drivers side done, not all 4 balljoints

 

[jedi1979]

Gary is right only the drivers side...but if you add another 230 then everything would have been done...84.99 labor for each ball joint...28.99 and 29.99 for parts (upper and Lower)...

 

[Cdexplorer]

I need to replace both sides - upper and lower....a local ford dealer gave me a quote of over $900. Obviously I'll be heading elsewhere but I'm having a hard time finding an independent shop up here with a gooe reputation.

On another note, I had both upper & lower replaced about 40,000 miles ago - this is getting old, the Cobra R's may just have to go

 

[97BlackX5.0]

if you can get the steering knuckle off.... then just take them in and have them pressed in.... i just did balljoints on a 94 F-150 4x4 for under 180 dollars in parts and that was including new ujoints and seals

 

[DeRocha]

Removing the spindle is a PITA. The book says to gently tap it with a rubber mallet and it will fall into your hand... I beat the thing for an hour with zero results.. I had to use several screwdrivers as wedges to walk around the spindle lip and pry it off. You need to remove the spindle in order to remove the front axle so you can have room to remove the castle nut on the lower ball joint.

 

[jedi1979]

Nice pictures...I was hoping mine would come off like that...unfortunately it couldnt evne geta chisel in between the two parts...and i was beating the hell out of it....very annoying...my next project is to change the passenger side radius arm bushing hopefully i have better luck with that

 

[1991XLT]

I have changed balljoints in two 1st gen explorers now and many other makes of vehicles.. But I always do my own repair work. Even engine changes and rebuilds I guess I like knowing that everything was done properly or atleast then its only me to blame if something should fail.

 

[DeRocha]

I'm right there with you 1991xlt. I don't like others working on my cars. I'm always thinking they will screw something up or take a shortcut etc.. The biggest stopping block is knowing how to tackle a job. Once you know it is a piece of cake...

 

[97BlackX5.0]

hehe these spindles are easy compared to the bearing hubs on the newer super duties.... i just took apart an F-350 SD front axle and it took me 4 hours of beating prying, WD-40ing, and yes air chiseling to get it out.... the nuts on the newer ones are on the other side by the universal joints and are not easy to get to. It gets to a point when you start realizing that the price the ford dealer asked is almost worth it just in stress....

 

[97BlackX5.0]

but theres nothing like finishing a job like this and realizing how much money you saved and knowing it was done right and completely....