upper ball joints.

[Doug]

Im doing my upper ball joints on my 97 sport right now and i cannot for the life of me figure out how to get them out of the spindle. Ive got a pickle fork and ive been banging away at them but so far nothing, any suggestions?

 

[EliteConcept]

maybe a pickle spoon? heheh just playing

do you have a repair manual?

other wise i am not sure...but i asked for tips hints and tricks on doing them because i have to replace the ones on my 92 here in the next week or so....

GOODLUCK!

 

[Doug]

I got a picklefork that fit perfectly and i succeeded in messing up the old ball joint. there is this small lip that goes around the outside and its all bent up from me literally jumping one pickle fork. i assume im doing this correctly. As far as i know there is only one bolt that needs to be removed right?

 

[taxx]

You need a bigger hammer. The first time I took mine out of the knuckle/spindle it was a bear. Put your jack under the lower front crossmember to jack the wheel up so it goes to full droop. this helps to get the ball out. Then get the BFH you can find and pount the hell out of it. Your throwing it away anyway! I am sure you realize this because you probably already have the parts, but the whole upper control arm has to come off.

 

[4LF]

I went through the same thing with a miata- two big guys stood on a 3ft breaker bar on the pickle fork before the damn thing budged.

 

[X24]

I just had one of my upper ball joints replaced today. It was easy. I sat in the waiting room for an hour eating free donuts, drinking free coffee and watching TV while sitting on a leather couch.

 

[Doug]

Originally posted by 98FordX24
I just had one of my upper ball joints replaced today. It was easy. I sat in the waiting room for an hour eating free donuts, drinking free coffee and watching TV while sitting on a leather couch.

grrr

well anyways i got them out i sprayed them down with wd40 let it sit for a while them got it from a different angle and it broke both of them loose. Im taking a break for food and im gonna finish it up soon.

 

[justwufn]

Guys I just got back from trying to get my wheels aligned and was told that I need to replace the front ball joints. They quoted me $380 to do the job. I have a couple of questions that hopefully some of you will answer.

1. Truck has about 89K miles. Is it reasonable to expect both upper/lower ball joints to go at that mileage level for a non off road vechicle with 50% of the miles interstate?

2. Is there an easy way to verify that both upper/lower joints need to be replaced? Truck was off lift by the time I came to pick it up.

3. What would be the symptions to denote bad joints? I have not detected anything abnormal other than the front passenger tire wearing on inside edge.

I do not plan on trying to do the repair myself. I wanted to make sure I need to do the repair in the first place. Any comments are suggestions would be appreciated.

Johnny

 

[Doug]

The answers to your questions are as follows..
at 89k miles its certainly possible your ball joints are worn. You can check your ball joints by jacking up the front of the truck and moving the tire up and down if there is movement theyre worn. I could tell my balljoints where worn was because when i went over bumps there would be a popping noise from the front end. My tires would also wear unevenly. the tire has 2 rows of high spots towards the center of the tire. the tire looks wavy. On another note i finished up the ball joints and its going in for an alignment on tuesday.