Ball joint help. Woohoo!

[TwiztidRat]

Hey guys another issue with my rig, but not surprised for the year so it's all good. I need to have both my upper, and lower ball joints replaced on my truck. The driver side is so worn out the rod actually punctured through the medal plate or whatever. Questions I have is how long can I chance driving in this condition. The steering is fine so far just squeaks a lot, the tire shop I took it to quoted me over $1000 which I know is just ridiculous.

I just drive city mostly so speeds are never over 35mph, I simply don't have the cash at this time to get these fixed but I assume if I do these myself I can get away with it for about $300? (roughly) I was also wondering if someone could link me to a site that has the parts because I'm not sure what parts I need. Thanks again guys

 

[swshawaii]

Lower:
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=188225

Upper:
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=194453

Parts Source:
http://www.rockauto.com/

PLEASE COMPLETE YOUR VEHICLE SPECS.
COULD HAVE PROVIDED DIRECT PART LINKS.

 

[TwiztidRat]

Sorry about that I was in a hurry earlier. It's a 2000 XLT explorer, 4x4 v6 with the sohc. 198k miles.

 

[RomeovilleIL]

How long can you drive on bad ball joints? Well, the real answer is we don't know. It might be 1 day, might be 6 months, or might be very next pothole or big bump. But here's the rub: you find out by crashing and doing a whole lot of damage to the vehicle while hopefully not hitting anyone else. Speed is not the concern. The ball joints hold the front wheels on to the truck. If one gives out that entire wheel assembly comes off. You don't steer or brake very well missing a tire, which often enough ends up jammed up in the wheel well or rolling down the street without you.

 

[white_shadow]

How long can you drive on bad ball joints? Well, the real answer is we don't know. It might be 1 day, might be 6 months, or might be very next pothole or big bump. But here's the rub: you find out by crashing and doing a whole lot of damage to the vehicle while hopefully not hitting anyone else. Speed is not the concern. The ball joints hold the front wheels on to the truck. If one gives out that entire wheel assembly comes off. You don't steer or brake very well missing a tire, which often enough ends up jammed up in the wheel well or rolling down the street without you.

exactly. i did not know how long the joints on my 98 were bad, but they were severly worn and had ALOT of play in them. they were moved to the top of the list to fix.