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Ford Explorer Community - Maintenance - Modifications - Performance Upgrades - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street
Explorer Forum Covers the Explorer ST, Explorer Sport, Explorer Sport Trac, Lincoln Aviator, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Ford Aerostar
Ball Joints super tight
Hubs tight
Spindle nuts inner one tighten till the roter will barely spin then back it off a bit till there is some resistence in turning the rotor. tHen install the washer. After thtat crank the crap out of outer just like you would on a TTB dana 35. That is how I did mine.
OK I have a dump question though. How do you toruqe the lower ball joint? Once you get it finger tight the whole thing just spins... There is no way to hold it. The upper has a has a flat head on the top, so I guess I can tighten that one, but not with a toruqe wrench. Also what about the adjuster inside the upper ball joint, I think it's for the caster or something, but don't I need a special tool?
OK I have a dump question though. How do you toruqe the lower ball joint? Once you get it finger tight the whole thing just spins... There is no way to hold it.
Ok but finger tight is for me, is a little more then most. I did use a wrench on it but it seemed like it should be tighter. I heard the lower is a self locking nut. True? It has a bunch of arrows pointing tords the center on it.
The hole is flared, so the tighter the nut the more resistance there is on the shaft. You can try tapping it with a hammer so it go's in more. Thats what i did to hold them on mine, just use a hammer to get more room to tighten the nut. lol hope that makes sense.
From what I've heard, a nut with the arrows is a locking nut.
Search for ball joint torque specs or something like that...it's a thread I started a couple of months ago. I found a link online with several torque specs (posted in that thread) for the D44. Your supposed to torque one ball joint to 30, then the next to 70, the first one to 90 or so again (it says it all in that link). I THINK the lower was the one that got 30 the first time around.
I also started a thread about that little adjuster thingy. I bought the 15 dollar socket to take it out, but you can probably just use a screw driver/hammer or make one out of some pvc or something. I put the new ones in the same amount that the stock ones were in. The upper ball joint was able to spin very easily when I would tighten it. Turns out I just needed to pull the nut off, tighten that "adjuster" back down, and it tightened down fine. Hope this helps.
that lil adjuster is for balljoint preload.... if its not set right then you will never get the balljoints tight and it can lead to steering and drivability issues down the road....
There is no way to hold it. The upper has a has a flat head on the top, so I guess I can tighten that one, but not with a toruqe wrench. Also what about the adjuster inside the upper ball joint, I think it's for the caster or something, but don't I need a special tool? 
