Balljoint material

[Chris97Exploder]

Just an FYI

The shop that did my alignment after I replaced the steering rack let me in on a interesting fact.

My explorer sport is a 97, and I have been getting alot of feedback from the bumps in the road but replaced all the steering(which it needed anyway). Well he told me that the factory Ford balljoints have plastic around the pivot ball end of the balljoint and it eventually wallers it out to an egg shape. No wonder I didn't hear any creaking since its plastic.

What intern designed these lowers and failed to do a life cycle test!

 

[skoal_mint]

i also got a 97 sport..

so is that why i can hear nothing when i shake the tire, but when i hit bumps i hear a clunk sound, sounds like a tire with loose lug nuts

 

[Doug]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but even the higher quality MOOG ball joints have a plastic bushing. I would imagine most ball joints have plastic bushings. My stock balljoints lasted almost 100k miles.

 

[Hartman]

I got nearly 130k out of mine. Plastic is a common material to use with ball/socket type joint.

 

[Chris97Exploder]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but even the higher quality MOOG ball joints have a plastic bushing. I would imagine most ball joints have plastic bushings. My stock balljoints lasted almost 100k miles.

Well from what I understood is that the whole inner casing is plastic, not just the sheave. I can understand them using a high density polyethylene thin casing. But if all the guts are plastic then thats crap!

I looked tonight and it has Moog's in it. That wouldn't be factory then right?
I'm puting ACDelco's in tomorrow (I get em for cost with a lifetime warranty so why not)..........

I dunno?



EDIT
Skoal Mint
I dunno about a tire with loose lugs nuts but sounds like maybe your inner tie rods or sway bar bushings are bad?

 

[skoal_mint]

k ,i didnt mean i think its loose lug nut, i mean it has a sound (noise) like theirs somthing loose when i hit pot holes or bumps

 

[jp450]

All the Moog uppers I have seen have replace-able joints that can be replaces for about $35. May just be cheaper to replace just the joint rather than the upper arm. Just a thought.

Jeff

 

[Lanky]

I also had the clunk in my front end. I replaced my lower ball joints, which did have slack in them, but I still had the clunk. I had my wife push down and sideways on the fender and could hear the clunk. After searching all over, I found that the link between the stabilizer and the lower control arm needed a little snugging. Probably needs new bushings in time. Give it a look, I know it sure is better when you don't have a constant clunk when you hit little bumps. My wife wishes I had found it before I spent $280 on ball joints and shocks!!!