Torn ball joint boots

[1998Exp]

At the respectful old age of 26 all four boots on the ball joints are torn. The joints appear intact and there is still decent-looking grease around them and nothing else. When my daughter's ancient Honda developed a similar problem, I was able to find replacement boots but apparently no such thing for our 2nd gens.
Searched the forum and found out that last time this challenge was discussed was 5 years ago, and that was for Moogs, not my original Fords, so not much help there.
Can someone who went through this offer advice? Press new ball joints on the vehicle? Remove the arms and take them to a shop to do that? Get a set of complete new arms? With the $150 that they charge these days for alignment, those four pieces of rubber look like a $500 proposition -- not to mention the not-so-fun labor. Is there a better way? Thanks!

 

[wollimann]

Think the upper control arm joints can not be replaced seperately and the whole arms should be replaced after that long time.
The lower control arm bushings maybe worn out too, so it makes sense to change the lower arms also.
Lower joints can pressed out seperately, a little bit of efford.

 

[J_C]

I am cost-conscious with my '98, so here is what I did:

Replaced both lower ball joints. This does not require an alignment to be done. Mine were shot, not just the boots. I got the larger BJ press loaner tool from Advance Auto parts, which has a taller cup in it than their smaller BJ press kit, that might have been needed. It's a steep deposit at over $200 but I didn't want to make another trip and it was all refunded when I returned the tool. I used Moog Problem Solver lower BJs, the newer style with the recessed rubber boot that you can barely see. The labor to DIY is not all that bad, especially considering you are working beside the vehicle instead of under it or deep in the engine bay. This assumes that you have basic jack jack stands and other common tools and don't get unlucky with rust. My '98 has plenty of undercarriage rust but no significant rust problems doing the BJs.

Replaced passenger front top ball joint by replacing that upper arm piece. It is a two piece design and if you note where the caster adjustment screw is, and only replace the piece holding the BJ, you can replace that BJ piece and put it back close enough to same caster without needing an alignment. That adjustment screw on the 2nd piece with the BJ in it, only affects caster.

Driver front top ball joint. You can't replace the driver front, top BJ without replacing the whole control arm and if you replace the whole control arm, you will need an alignment done. Mine had a cracked boot that started leaking years ago, and I kept pumping grease in, so it was still in good condition. Recently I finally got around to replacing that boot, and the replacement was not a good fit, but if kept on the BJ when the vehicle is lowered back down to the ground, it stays in place and it seals better than the torn boot, and I check it every now and then for leaking grease and so far, so good.

I packed the boot with grease, after also working some into that BJ, since it doesn't have a grease zerk to add more, but I can get more in with a grease gun and needle on it, between the top of the boot and the BJ, not needing to pierce the boot to do so. Some of the details of that are in this topic, the linked post and a few more I made thereafter in same topic:

Need replacement for Moog upper ball joint boots

I should clarify, that I'm interested in a boot for the Motorcraft upper control arm BJ, not Moog. The boot on mine disintegrated, but when that started happening, I packed it well with grease and there is minimal play in the BJ so I'm just going to reboot it. I'm gonna have to measure mine...

www.explorerforum.com

So far, I have not had an alignment done in... wow, maybe 12 years or so, back when the prior to current set of tires were put on, and have had even tire wear since then. YMMV - if your alignment is off already, and it's not just due to BJ wear, then it will still be off with new BJs.

 

[1998Exp]

Thanks a lot for the detailed response, J_C!
The torn boots were an accidental discovery while diagnosing a no crank and there were no symptoms of bad BJs or bad bushings. When the new starter arrives and I get the vehicle back on the ground, will examine both and decide how to proceed. Would be surprised to find much (other than the torn boots) because this vehicle has been driven mostly on asphalt roads with minimal potholes. No significant rust either.
Incidentally, in 24 years of ownership I never had the pleasure of removing the torsion bars. The service manual calls for some special tool (or tools) to release the tension. Just in case this torn boots challenge progresses to removing the lower control arms, can anyone shed some light on the process?

 

[wollimann]

If you decide only to change the lower ball joints, jack it up, let the torsion bars untouched (pain to remove them)
and press out the old lower ball joints. If you have no ball joint tool, support the lower control arms with additional jack stands (or maybe a stable wood construktion) and punsh the joints out with a hammer (there are snap rings, they must remove before).

If you decide to change the lower control arms, the torsion bars must be removed. The rear end of the bars has tension bolts. Before you loose these bolts you must use the unloading tool to release the tension.

https://www.amazon.com/VCT-20777-torsion-Unloading-tool/dp/B07HBBHNZ1?tag=seriouexplor-20

After that you have to push the torsion bars out of the lower control arm, from the front to the rear.
Sometimes the bars are so rusty that you have to use WD40 to have a little chance to get them out.

Good and save unloading tool.

 

[donalds]

Not sure if this helps but I replaced all of my rubber boots with silicone ones off of ebay all I had to do was take a few measurements

 

[1998Exp]

Not sure if this helps but I replaced all of my rubber boots with silicone ones off of ebay all I had to do was take a few measurements

Thanks! Do you happen to have the ebay item information or the measurements?

 

[1998Exp]

If you decide only to change the lower ball joints, jack it up, let the torsion bars untouched (pain to remove them)
and press out the old lower ball joints. If you have no ball joint tool, support the lower control arms with additional jack stands (or maybe a stable wood construktion) and punsh the joints out with a hammer (there are snap rings, they must remove before).

If you decide to change the lower control arms, the torsion bars must be removed. The rear end of the bars has tension bolts. Before you loose these bolts you must use the unloading tool to release the tension.

https://www.amazon.com/VCT-20777-torsion-Unloading-tool/dp/B07HBBHNZ1?tag=seriouexplor-20

After that you have to push the torsion bars out of the lower control arm, from the front to the rear.
Sometimes the bars are so rusty that you have to use WD40 to have a little chance to get them out.



Good and save unloading tool.

Thanks! The Ex is now in the air, awaiting a new starter. Once installed, I will put the passenger wheel back on and check the balljoints on both sides. Not sure if the usual pry bar trick will tell me anything about the upper ones. And what puzzles me is how to check the bushings. Do you have a suggestion?

 

[donalds]

The chances of your measurements and mine being the same are slim
Just search ebay for silicone ball joint boots and include your measurements
You can find several examples of how to measure on ebay Here's an example
I think this is the exact seller

Pardon Our Interruption...

The silicone ones are great because they don't degrade from the grease

 

[1998Exp]

The chances of your measurements and mine being the same are slim
Just search ebay for silicone ball joint boots and include your measurements
You can find several examples of how to measure on ebay Here's an example
I think this is the exact seller

Pardon Our Interruption...

The silicone ones are great because they don't degrade from the grease

Thanks for the link! This guy has quite a selection.
New starter installed (after acquiring some scratches on my hands and uttering a litany of choice words while tackling that impossible upper bolt). The Ex is back on the ground and I can't find anything loose in the BJs. So following your advice, ordered a few silicone boots from him. They are coming from Bulgaria (of all places) and will take a month to arrive. Will post my experience then.
And many thanks for all who responded so kindly to enlightened me!

 

[V8]

When you check the ball joints using a pry bar, try pushing the top of the wheel back and forth while pulling up on the pry bar. Please be certain to have the frame supported by jack stands before you attempt this. If you feel any movement in the top of the wheel when you wiggle it in and out the upper ball joint is bad. I've replaced the ball joints in my '01 three times so far thanks to Moog and their poor quality upper ball joint boots. My uppers are replaceable on both sides so I don't have to replace the RT upper control arm every time. Moog used to offer RT upper control arms with replaceable ball joints but I think I may have bought the last one about five years ago. 26 years on one set of ungreasable ball joints huh? That has to be a record.

 

[1998Exp]

When you check the ball joints using a pry bar, try pushing the top of the wheel back and forth while pulling up on the pry bar. Please be certain to have the frame supported by jack stands before you attempt this. If you feel any movement in the top of the wheel when you wiggle it in and out the upper ball joint is bad. I've replaced the ball joints in my '01 three times so far thanks to Moog and their poor quality upper ball joint boots. My uppers are replaceable on both sides so I don't have to replace the RT upper control arm every time. Moog used to offer RT upper control arms with replaceable ball joints but I think I may have bought the last one about five years ago. 26 years on one set of ungreasable ball joints huh? That has to be a record.

Great advice, thank you! I have a feeling that the BJs are still all good, but will follow your instructions about checking and report soon.

 

[1998Exp]

When you check the ball joints using a pry bar, try pushing the top of the wheel back and forth while pulling up on the pry bar. Please be certain to have the frame supported by jack stands before you attempt this. If you feel any movement in the top of the wheel when you wiggle it in and out the upper ball joint is bad. I've replaced the ball joints in my '01 three times so far thanks to Moog and their poor quality upper ball joint boots. My uppers are replaceable on both sides so I don't have to replace the RT upper control arm every time. Moog used to offer RT upper control arms with replaceable ball joints but I think I may have bought the last one about five years ago. 26 years on one set of ungreasable ball joints huh? That has to be a record.

As stated earlier, no motion detected with the prybar test. Nevertheless, I removed both the UCA and the LCA, for a closer inspection. The ball joint on the UCA feels "floppy," but the one on the LCA feels solid. So I guess it is a record...
As for the boots, I followed donalds advice and ordered the silicone ones from the ebay guy. The size, 25-45-30, that someone posted here earlier fit the LCA perfectly, but not the UCA. Still, after taking all the effort to disassemble everything, I may just replace both arms.
There is also a challenge with separating the BJ from the knuckle. I will post that separately.

 

[410Fortune]

Factory ball joints are spicer non greasable and they last 150-250k miles…. So when I go to install new ones my first choice is motorcraft or spicer non greasable
Cannot always get oem parts

But I can tell you greasable joints have a seal that allows grease out. That same seal lets water and dirt in. Non greasable
Joints have a much much better seal and they don’t need fresh grease or let water or dirt in… I always choose non greasable