Ball Joint/Control Arm Questions

[duke16]

Phew, all done, all that's left is an alignment.

Had a little issue with the factory upper control arm bolts on the passenger side and my Torque Monster headers. There wasn't enough room to pull the bolt all the way out without hitting the headers. So I had to whip the dremel out and grind away at the bolts, major pain in ass. Other then that, things went pretty smoothly.

I do have one question though, when I was putting the brake calipers back on, I noticed they were touching the rotors. Presumably, now that I've driven around a little bit they have readjusted themselves?

 

[scoops]

trying to purchase upper bj for 98 4x4. Advance Auto only shows a RH unit by TRW. My Ford Parts Manager had told me Motorcraft makes a separate left and right and one is slightly longer and maybe beefier than the other, but triple the price. Does the TRW RH actually fit both sides?

 

[Dan Whitaker]

They are not interchangeable. They should show a left & right upper. Sounds like they don't know how to look up parts.

 

[scoops]

Finally got a chance to take a look a both side of the front susp. today. Before, I had only checked out the R side and then assumed the L would be configured the same way to allow for the same allignment adjustment. Ya know what they say about assuming, huh? Seems wierd they would make one side adjustable but the other side solid. Now I know better what the replacement parts should look like. Thanks for your help.

 

[duke16]

Finally got a chance to take a look a both side of the front susp. today. Before, I had only checked out the R side and then assumed the L would be configured the same way to allow for the same allignment adjustment. Ya know what they say about assuming, huh? Seems wierd they would make one side adjustable but the other side solid. Now I know better what the replacement parts should look like. Thanks for your help.

Just an FYI, you don't need to get the same two-piece design on the passenger side. I switched it out for a 1 piece, just like the drivers side, so that I could get new bushings and my caster was fine.

 

[rwenzing]

Seems wierd they would make one side adjustable but the other side solid.

Camber and caster can be properly adjusted using the 1-piece arms on both sides. Ford originally included the extra slide arrangement on the passenger side to allow for a wider range and easier adjustment for "caster split".

Alignment shops usually use about a 1/2~3/4 degree difference between the sides (caster split) to help compensate for road crown. In countries like the U.S. where we drive on the right, the geometry is set up to pull slightly to the left. This is because the crown of most roads would cause a "neutral" alignment to pull to the right most of the time.

Apparently, it was found in the field that the additional caster adjustment was not needed because the PS arm was changed to 1-piece on production Rangers in mid-2003 MY (98+ Rangers with torsion bars share most of their front suspension and steering parts with Gen2 Explorers).

Of course, the factory replacement part for the PS 2-piece Ranger/Explorer UCA was also changed to the 1-piece design, a mirror image of the DS arm. Since then, MOOG has followed suit and superceded its 2-piece arrangement to 1-piece. There are still some of the 2-piece MOOG's here and there in the parts pipeline but they are disappearing.

 

[duke16]

That's good information, thanks.

 

[gijoecam]

snip...
Alignment shops usually use about a 1/2~3/4 degree difference between the sides (caster split) to help compensate for road crown. In countries like the U.S. where we drive on the right, the geometry is set up to pull slightly to the left. This is because the crown of most roads would cause a "neutral" alignment to pull to the right most of the time.
snip...

And I absolutely HATE that. They set them the same at the factory, and the vehicle tracks straight. Every time I've had a shop do an alignment, they try and feed me that line of crap. I want the vehicle to track straight on a flat piece of pavement, and if it pulls, I want it to pull to the side that the road is crowned. If they set it up to pull to the left to compensate for a right crown, what happens in the left or left center lane of the freeway? It pulls TWICE as hard!! They can take that pile of BS and shove it. Make the wheels STRAIGHT.

For the original question, I believe Ford used the 2-piece design for the passenger side so as to make it easier to adjust as it rolled off the line. If you look at the range for caster, it's so broad that the driver's side obviously falls into it to start with. Then, all they have to do is make the passenger side match (easy enough with the 2-piece arm) and the vehicle tracks straight right away.

-Joe

 

[CDW6212R]

I agree with you Joe, let me do the driving thanks.