ball joints, still confused!

[SiLenZe]

01 sport 39k miles. went to the dealer yesterday and they said my lower ball joint on the passsenger side has some play. 600$ to replace! few questions for you guys.
1. what needs to be replaced. i have the ford cd and haynes manual that tells me for a 95+ you cant service the ball joint by itself and i will have to replace the lower control arm. confused! guys on here said they did it themselves for 40 bux.
2.how much and can i do this myself? any pics stories help in anyway would be awesome.
3.how long will my ball joint last? can i keep driving and for how long? they said there was a little play right now.
thanks

 

[Blee1099]

Originally posted by SiLenZe
01 sport 39k miles. went to the dealer yesterday and they said my lower ball joint on the passsenger side has some play. 600$ to replace! few questions for you guys.
1. what needs to be replaced. i have the ford cd and haynes manual that tells me for a 95+ you cant service the ball joint by itself and i will have to replace the lower control arm. confused! guys on here said they did it themselves for 40 bux.
2.how much and can i do this myself? any pics stories help in anyway would be awesome.
3.how long will my ball joint last? can i keep driving and for how long? they said there was a little play right now.
thanks

The factory ones don't have grease fittings. You can replace them with a set of Moog ball joints that have grease fittings. It can be done by yourself however you'll need a press or some other method to seat the lower ball joint into the control arm correctly.

 

[Ray Lobato]

You just replace the lower ball joint. They are ripping you off for $600.00 . Do it yourself. It's very easy to do. Somewhere on this site, I told someone how to replace the lowers. Please do a search on "ball joints". You can pop them in and out with a hammer, it's not that hard to do, just make sure that you take off the retaining clip off before you try to pound it out.
Oh ya, lower ball joints only cost around 40 bucks each.

 

[etc]

The Upper ball joints need to be replaced with the control arm. The second time around they balljoint can be replaced by itself with the moog balljoint/control arm. The lower ball joints can be pressed out. Ill be doing this, this weekend probably, I'll let you know how it goes. The $600 dollars is for labor, but still way too high.

http://www.haroh.com/explorer/ball_joint.html

That's the "easy" way to do the ball joints. Thanks again Harry

 

[SiLenZe]

wow that site is great!
Vehicle: 2001 FORD TRUCK EXPLORER V6-245 4.0L SOHC
Lookup Type: Part Description - Ball Joint, Front
Lower Ball Joint
ENHANCED DESIGN K8695T 95-01 2
TRW
Lower Ball Joint 104222 99-01 2
what is the difference between these 2?

 

[X~FACTOR]

My ball joints are still fine so far but I was at my mechanic yesterday so I asked him how much it would be to replace the ball joints. I figured with everyone replacing them lately I might as well be prepared. He told me that I could replace the bottom ones myself. No big deal, he said. And for the upper ones he'll charge me $90 each side if I supplied the Moogs. So, yea, $600 is way too expensive.

 

[etc]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the enhanced design has a grease fitting, while the other does not. Again, I'm not entirely sure.

 

[EliteConcept]

even if labor is included thats way too high

fyi a local shop in my town can replace a lower ball joint for $90 and that includes parts and labor

 

[stubborn1]

FYI-

I just had both my lower ball joints replaced, outer tie rod ends replaced, and 4 wheel alignment for $600.

The dealer is taking you for a ride.