Lower Ball Joint (Driver Side) ???'s

[Blacksheep Josh]

I'm constantly amazed at older mechanics who just know stuff from experience. I've had a horrible "grinding" sound while driving, wasn't the brake pads, nor the rotors, so I took it to the family mechanic. Instantly when he drove it he realized the bearings were bad, replaced them, most of the noise went away. Then he "played" with the two front tires and discovered that the Driver Side Lower Ball Joint could use replacing.. Told me as well that's what's causing that particular tire to wear faster (was pissing me off! inside is bald, outside is perfect).

Now to my question, I've looked online at a few stores and found the ball joints for about 30 dollars or so at Autozone for the Duralast version.

What all does it entail? He mentioned about having to remove the entire brake assembly, and that the upper ball joint has to come out at well. Has anyone done this? And can I do it myself? Only "major" thing I've done is replace my rotors, bearings, pads...

I had a regular set of Craftsman hand tools, do I need anything else?

Any in site anyone can add would be most appreciated.

-Joshua

 

[MrShorty]

1st suggestion would be to do a search here. I'm almost certain someone (DeRocha???) has posted a how to thread for 1st gen ball joints. 2nd suggestion would be to get a DIY repair manual (autozone has a free electronic version of Chiltons on their website). When I did my ball joints, I worked out of Chiltons with little problem.

How hard it is depends a lot on how rusted things are. On my BII, I had to go to pretty extreme measures to get the spindle off of the knuckle, and ended up taking the knuckle to a shop to have the joints pressed out. My Explorer wasn't as bad.

 

[91exploreron37]

Is it 2 or 4WD and the tech section at therangerstation.com has a detailed write up with pics on ball joint installation.

 

[walterd140]

And may I add that while you have it all apart, do lower & upper at the same time. This way you don't have to go in there twice. (might as well since both are exposed)
Walter

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

thanks guys, i would do all of them if i had the money. many forget, there ARE college students on this website. lol. maybe i should start donating plasma...

 

[91exploreron37]

They arent expensive especially if your talking about getting them from autozone and you might as well do the upper while its apart to save some serious time and it's probably gonna go bad after you replace the lower anyway. I just replaced my upper and lower passenger side about a month ago it wasnt't that hard and I saved alot of money but your still gonna have to get it aligned. I'm also a 20 year old college student with limited funds.

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

least i know now that i'm not the only one out there. i think if i can make it another two months with the "bad" one, i might be able to get my taxes back and do everything at once.

this had better fix the alignment, i'm tired of paying the 40 bucks, and then a month later it's back to what it was...

-josh

 

[DeRocha]

Here are some Ball joint threads to get you started.
Ball Joint Replacement
Ball joint replacement
Removing a stuck spindle

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

appreciate it, is that a 2wd or a 4wd? i want to say because i have a 2wd, if i see a step that looks like it's related to the 4wd, i can just skip that and go to what i can do?

 

[DeRocha]

The above pictures and threads are for 4x4, but you can just skip over any 4x4 stuff...

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

tis what i thought. thank you.

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

I finally have all the parts to replace my ball joint, for BOTH sides... I'm not going to lie, I'm extremely nervous about it... but I have a Haynes Manual coming in from ebay in a few days, and depending on the temperature outside, I'm gonna try and do it... At least one side. It doesn't look to hard, the only thing I'm really worried about is assembling it right...

Thanks for the help DeRocha, the threads you linked me to helped a lot, I think I understand pretty much what I'm gonna have to do... but one thing I'm kinda confused about, do the joints sit in the i-beam? or the knuckle?

I have 2WD

 

[91exploreron37]

They are mounted in the knuckle.

 

[ricco750]

I finally have all the parts to replace my ball joint, for BOTH sides... I'm not going to lie, I'm extremely nervous about it... but I have a Haynes Manual coming in from ebay in a few days, and depending on the temperature outside, I'm gonna try and do it... At least one side. It doesn't look to hard, the only thing I'm really worried about is assembling it right...

Thanks for the help DeRocha, the threads you linked me to helped a lot, I think I understand pretty much what I'm gonna have to do... but one thing I'm kinda confused about, do the joints sit in the i-beam? or the knuckle?

I have 2WD

Hey, Josh...just figured I'd reach out to another 2WD guy...as you can tell, we're in the minority!

I'm also about to do major front suspension work on my X...this weekend I will replace the radius arm bushings and the springs. Next weekend I will replace all four ball joints and both tie rod ends. No, I've never done it before. I studied my Haynes manual and this site for the last six weeks before deciding on this sequence. Good luck on your job!

 

[DeRocha]

...
Thanks for the help DeRocha, the threads you linked me to helped a lot, I think I understand pretty much what I'm gonna have to do... but one thing I'm kinda confused about, do the joints sit in the i-beam? or the knuckle?

I have 2WD

Good question.. The ball joints are pressed into the Steering Knuckle (as seen below) while the tapered part of the ball joints are held in place by the I-Beam.

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

And the steering knuckle is also what the brake caliper is held onto when in place correctly?

The print out i got from autozone, showed the balljoints on the i-beam, but i think it was the wrong year...

This'll be my first time doing this, and i'm nervous as heck, I just don't want to mess it up..

 

[DeRocha]

And the steering knuckle is also what the brake caliper is held onto when in place correctly?

The print out i got from autozone, showed the balljoints on the i-beam, but i think it was the wrong year...

This'll be my first time doing this, and i'm nervous as heck, I just don't want to mess it up..

Correct, the Brake caliper attaches to the steering knuckle. In the previous post it shows a steering knuckle with new ball joints installed.

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

maybe in the next few days i'll try to get to it... it actually started snowing/sleeting tonight....

IN GEORGIA