92 Radius arm & ball joint

[cage]

I have a 92 stock--shop said my radius arm and ball joints are bad--Is this something the average person can do on their own??? Quote was for $500-and i have more time than money. Any advise would be great-thanks.

 

[texplor93]

500 is really all that bad, i think i paid 320 for radius arms and 320 for ball joints. that seemed a little high for me but i also got them done at different times so i didnt save on labor, if you are mechanically inclined then yeah you can do it, but i would take it in, next time i will be doing it on my own.

 

[MrMatt]

I havent done either myself, I have heard both can be a PITA though.

Im going to be doing my Radius Arm bushings myself soon, I looked and my crossmemeber that the Rad. Arms bolt into must have been removed at one point because it is bolted in everywhere not riveted so in my case I can just remove the crossmember.

If its riveted then you can unbolt the radius arms, jack the truck up, use a come-a-long or something similar and winch the axle forward, you may have to loosen the pivot points on the TTB to get the arms to come out enough, or you can tear you suspension completly apart and remove the arms that way.

Either way sounds like a lot of work to me so Ill just be taking my crossmember out.

On a side note, does anyone know how much a new crossmember is? And are their aftermarket ones I should look into getting instead of a stock one? Mine has a gash in it right by the rad. arm mount so I should replace it.

-Matt

 

[toad]

I replaced the crossmember/bushings on my old ranger(same thing) had to get the crossmember from junk yard, only place I could find one . Good luck.

 

[MrMatt]

Thanks for the info toad, Ill have to see how much they want for one.

-Matt

 

[Isles4evr]

The info givin on the radius arms is correct. The ball joints are definitly a pain though. While you are doing them you might as well replace both the upper and lower. Basically it involve pull off the brake assembly, wheel bearings, rotors, spindle shiled spindle, and then you can get to the ball joints. You will probably need an air hammer/chizle to get them out, I imagen you could do it with a hammer, but it is easier to use air. Then you need to press them back in a reinstall. I did 'em at my shop and it took my 2.5 hours working at a leasurly pace. The book calls for 3 hours labor, i think. So you figure my shop charges $66 per hour so that is $198 labor plus parts, and I think the joints were like 15/20 bucks each so add another 80 to that (store cost I believe). So that should give you am idea. As far as radius arms the bushings are cheep and it takes like 1.2 hours i think to R&R them. The arms you could do yourself with out air, but I wouldn;t do the ball joints with out air.

Chris