2005 Sport Trac steering and suspension

[TakingAHike]

My 05 Sport Trac (2WD) has been pulling to the right a bit and there is wear on the insides of both front tires. I took it in for an alignment check to one place and they said I need to replace the lower ball joints before alignment as the left one has excessive movement. Of course they wanted to charge ~$500 to do that. I took it for another opinion somewhere else and they agreed the lower ball joints needed replacement as well as the inner/outer tie rods and the struts and quoted $1500 for the job. I'm thinking I'm going to do the work myself and save some money.

I have a couple questions. What do you guys think about this? From a wear and tear point of view is it normal to have to replace the tie rods? Both inner and outer? Just outer?

They said struts, but when I picture struts I think coil over shock but my truck only has shocks, no coils. I guess they meant shocks? What sets the ride height of the truck?

Based on the age of the truck, should I replace anything else? Upper ball joints?

I'm just trying to do my research so I can understand everything involved before jumping into this. From what I can tell, it doesn't look too hard to do the ball joints, tie rods and shocks.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Kjhadfield]

Have heard the lowers wear faster than the uppers. You can just replace the lbj but if you need bushings also then I have seen its just easier to get the lower arm (swshawaii?). If you have stock upper arms you need the whole upper arm- get aftermarket w/ replaceable ubj. Most ppl will recommend moog. If you do the uppers- might as well get a camber kit for each side while you are there- pretty cheap and makes for an easier alignment (most adjustable)

The Torsion bars set the ride height (front) and can be adjusted for lift of 2". No struts but shocks. Makes you wonder if they know what the hell there doing if they don't even know about the truck, I wouldn't think someone that really knows their stuff would make that error. The shocks are easy to do- most just fight to break the nuts/bolts free.

I guess since your under there anyways, replace the end links and sway bar bushing- there pretty cheap.

It's pretty cheap/easy to replace the outer tie rods- haven't looked into the Inners but I think this isn't as easy to do as the outers.

I have the uca, outer tie rods still to install. Thinking I should do at least the lbj too. Need to install my energy suspension end link/ sway bar bushings also. When I did the shocks and end links they were easy enough to do in the driveway. Doing this yourself will save you more than several hundred + $. Look to rock auto for the parts and use the 5% discount to ef members. There are how to threads on this forum to go into detail and YouTube is a great source, I find chrisfx (member here) videos to be valuable.

 

[swshawaii]

Replace the lower ball joints first if you have confirmed they are worn.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=203597

"How To" threads for 1995-2001 Explorers - Stickys compiled (Applies to the 2001-05 ST front end)
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=386329

 

[sr139fox]

I did lower ball joints, upper a franes, all sway bars links and bushingd for $500 in parts. Look for my post for part numbers. Dave P.

 

[TakingAHike]

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll see if I can get some parts to give it a go this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[TakingAHike]

So I spent a long Sunday (about 8 hours) replacing the lower ball joints, outer tie rod ends, sway bar bushings, end links and front shocks. I took my time as I had not done this before. Got new tires and had the front end aligned yesterday. It rides much smoother now, doesn't drift, and the road noise is greatly reduced.

I wasn't quite prepared for the gun shot when the knuckle releases from the lower ball joint. Had to stop for a moment to make sure I was still in one piece. I'm very glad I saw a recommendation on here to leave the castle nut on so that the knuckle doesn't just fall off.

Thanks for the input guys.