Upper ball joint dust cover

[my98nnj]

My 98 only has 96,000 miles on it. The upper ball joint dust covers have been cracked for quite some time. Every time I get the chance I've been packing grease into them. I finally found replacement dust covers on line for like 8 bucks. Finally got around to putting them on today. Ripped off what was left of the old covers, cleaned up the joint really well and packed it with new grease. I have to say, a little maintenance goes a long way. The original ball joints were still nice and tight.

 

[Augustin]

Hello,
I have the same probleme.
I thought that i had to change all the arms or all the ball joint...
So if i understand your mail, i can change only the dust cover ??
Thanks for help

 

[masospaghetti]

In my experience, ball joints usually fail because dust boot fails and tend to last almost forever if properly lubricated.

Replacing just the boot is an excellent alternative to replacing the whole arm as long as the original is nice and tight. Word of caution: I've heard those poly dust boots do a lousy job sealing out the elements. Stick with the rubber boots.

 

[Augustin]

Word of caution: I've heard those poly dust boots do a lousy job sealing out the elements. Stick with the rubber boots."
So where can y buy good dust boots ?
Where do You mean by stick with the rubber boots ?
Tanks
Augustin

 

[Ronjm]

Hi I am in Australia and want to do the same thing my ball joints are nice and tight but the dust covers are gone. Does anybody know where I could get these and how to install. Thanks

 

[koda2000]

To OP... If you got 96,000 miles on a 20-21 year old truck with deteriorated dust boots, you need new ball joints. They're worn out anyway, New ones will come with new dust covers and decent ones will even have grease fittings.

 

[swshawaii]

Hi I am in Australia and want to do the same thing my ball joints are nice and tight but the dust covers are gone. Does anybody know where I could get these and how to install. Thanks

Upper, lowers, or both? If original UPPER control arms, the ball joints are not replaceable and the UCA must be replaced. https://www.rockauto.com/info/Moog/MOOG_PS_Bulletin_27045.pdf

Lower ball joints can be replaced. Never have seen rubber boots sold separately from Ford or aftermarket manufacturers.
Moog updated their lower ball joint boot design some time ago.
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=203594&jsn=3

 

[koda2000]

Hi I am in Australia and want to do the same thing my ball joints are nice and tight but the dust covers are gone. Does anybody know where I could get these and how to install. Thanks

If the dust covers are gone the ball joints are worn. You may think they're nice and tight, but once you get them disconnected from the knuckle you'll see how loose and sloppy they really are.

 

[domct203]

To OP... If you got 96,000 miles on a 20-21 year old truck with deteriorated dust boots, you need new ball joints. They're worn out anyway, New ones will come with new dust covers and decent ones will even have grease fittings.

Agreed, time for new ball joints. Once the boots rip, the joint begins to deteriorate.

The ball joint is a critical part of the suspension, if one fails at highway speeds the results could be disastrous.

 

[J_C]

IMO, you have more time with the upper BJs than lower. Lower, they're more subject to road spray and contamination and those BJ's take more abuse in every driving environment.

I'm not saying don't replace your uppers, just that "most" on road explorers won't need them replaced as often as the lowers. At the same time if you are redoing the front suspension to the point where you're going to need an alignment anyway, that's a good time to replace the uppers too, as long as you use a quality replacement. A low quality generic replacement could be worse than relubing what you have.

Boots for them? Meh, I would either put more grease in the existing uppers or replace them. Boots seem like too little too late but that's just my opinion, everyone has their own environment and driving conditions. I would put lube into a split boot and keep doing that at oil changes and replace the whole control arm w/BJ when that doesn't seem to be enough.

 

[CDW6212R]

The tiny Moog BJ boots don't hold much grease. I've got them on my truck and after three months there's a little grease outside the boots. Who knows if those boots will last longer the the normal kind. But if enough grease can get out, how much moisture can get inside the boot? I wish they held more grease.

 

[koda2000]

IMO, you have more time with the upper BJs than lower. Lower, they're more subject to road spray and contamination and those BJ's take more abuse in every driving environment.

I'm not saying don't replace your uppers, just that "most" on road explorers won't need them replaced as often as the lowers. At the same time if you are redoing the front suspension to the point where you're going to need an alignment anyway, that's a good time to replace the uppers too, as long as you use a quality replacement. A low quality generic replacement could be worse than relubing what you have.

Boots for them? Meh, I would either put more grease in the existing uppers or replace them. Boots seem like too little too late but that's just my opinion, everyone has their own environment and driving conditions. I would put lube into a split boot and keep doing that at oil changes and replace the whole control arm w/BJ when that doesn't seem to be enough.

The problem is that the OE Ford boots don't just split, they completely rot away, and there's no grease fittings so you can't get the grease where it's really needed. I've replaced 6 sets of Explorer upper control arms and lower BJ's. The worst ones were found on my '01 ST at 185k. While it's true the lowers are more subject to wear and failure, my ST's uppers were actually more worn than my lowers. Initially the concern with sloppy ball joints is tire wear, but as the ball joints continues to wear (which will now be accelerated) safety is a concern. It doesn't cost much to replace the upper and lower ball joints yourself (around $160 for all four for Moog Problem Solvers) and at only 100k your lower control arm bushings should still be okay). Of course if you take it to Ford you're looking at over $700+.

The only good DIY way to test your ball joint wear is to jack each front wheel just off the ground about an inch by jacking from the lower control arm. Then using helper and scrap piece of 2x4, place a long pry bar under the tire using the piece of 2x4 for leverage lift the tire slightly. Doing this will tell you how much slop is in both the ball joints. If you only see a tiny bit of movement in the joints you're okay for now, but put ball joint replacement on your to-do list for spring.