david4451
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- February 9, 2015
- Messages
- 309
- Reaction score
- 46
- City, State
- cotabato philippines
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2001 ford sport trac
I'm a brit living in the Philippines, my 2001 sport trac 4wd needed new upper and lower control arm ball joints. Here spare parts are very expensive, lower ball joint us$102 each, upper control arm drivers side us$409
So I did the installation and was looking closely at the old ball joints, whilst worn they were not destroyed I could see the plastic around the lower ball, it was intact. My thought was how could I tighten the ball up to the plastic, well this is too simple. Put the ball upside down in a vice and get a cold chisel and hammer,hit the lip adjacent to the ball, six times around the circumference, equidistant . My old ball Joint is now tight
Same with the upper control arm, but on the top of it, the ball is now tight.
My estimate is that those old ball joints will be good for another 150000 km, when my new joints wear out.
I would add this is probably only viable for ball joints with plastic inserts
So I did the installation and was looking closely at the old ball joints, whilst worn they were not destroyed I could see the plastic around the lower ball, it was intact. My thought was how could I tighten the ball up to the plastic, well this is too simple. Put the ball upside down in a vice and get a cold chisel and hammer,hit the lip adjacent to the ball, six times around the circumference, equidistant . My old ball Joint is now tight
Same with the upper control arm, but on the top of it, the ball is now tight.
My estimate is that those old ball joints will be good for another 150000 km, when my new joints wear out.
I would add this is probably only viable for ball joints with plastic inserts
