I have a 99 ford explorer 2wd the inner tie rod is bad so i bought a kit that included ball joints and tierods ect

[99xplrguy]

So i bought a kit from detroit axle to replace front suspension parts .. but i gotto looking and read the factory upper ball joint has to be changed with whole control arm ... my question is how do i know if i still have factory control arm / ball join or if its already been replaced at some point

 

[Fix4Dirt]

i typically like to say, if youve got nothin good to say, dont say it. howver, ill say that i havent been impressed w/detroit axle. brake pads dusted like a dog shedding, one drive and rims are getting dark. bushngs werent too great, not horrible, but not great. hubs didnt last long. anyways, that being said. have you still got the 2 piece control arm? usually people will upgrade to the 1 piece. iirc MC had a PN on it, but not too sure, been too long since i did my control arm bushings. no way to tell fi BJ has been changed to my knowledge. and i dont thik bj had to be replaced with the rest? its been years and years, but i couldve sworn it was just the bj replaced, nto the whole control arm. but not too sure again

 

[donalds]

i typically like to say, if youve got nothin good to say, dont say it. howver, ill say that i havent been impressed w/detroit axle. brake pads dusted like a dog shedding, one drive and rims are getting dark. bushngs werent too great, not horrible, but not great. hubs didnt last long. anyways, that being said. have you still got the 2 piece control arm? usually people will upgrade to the 1 piece. iirc MC had a PN on it, but not too sure, been too long since i did my control arm bushings. no way to tell fi BJ has been changed to my knowledge. and i dont thik bj had to be replaced with the rest? its been years and years, but i couldve sworn it was just the bj replaced, nto the whole control arm. but not too sure again

My passenger front control room upper
I just pressed in new bushings because I couldn't find the OG part
I'm a stickler for that sort of thing

 

[Fix4Dirt]

My passenger front control room upper I just pressed in the bushings because I couldn't find the og part
I'm a stickler for that sort of thing

yep same! i still have the OE control arm, but the bushing+bj is all different! have ES bushings in there now

 

[XLTrunner]

Only clue I can think of as to whether the upper ball joints have been replaced is if they have the grease fitting. Otherwise, depending on vehicle mileage, you probably should assume they haven't been changed and will require control arms w/ball joints. I went with re-greaseable Moogs when I did mine...and, stuck with the 2-pc design on the passenger side. 7 yrs/30K miles and so far, so good.

 

[C420sailor]

Detroit Axle gets mixed reviews on here, hope they serve you well.

If it’s a Ford part, it should be stamped with a part number and/or logo…

You can post pics here and we can try to ID it

Generally a two piece is OEM, very few people replace the two piece with another one