Ok, so i get my truck back from the shop today, finally the cattle gaurd is on and it looks GREAT! so im driving it home, and i here this loud *** screaching noise whenever i hit even the smallest bump or turn.. So i take it back to the mechanic and he diagnoses it on the side of the street lol.. Lower ball joint is bad.. Its nothing he technically did, but he thinks because it was on the lift for a while, it just went bad..


Soo.. heres my question.. where do i get upper and lower ball joints and which brand whatnot to get?

Can i do it myself, or should i have him do it?

 

its not bad to do but it will require some disassembly. that lower arm needs to come out or the whole knuckle.


they need to be pressed out, so either rent the tool or maybe you have it now?

summitracing.com sells them. or most auto parts stores. get MOOGs rockauto.com sells them

 

thanks Zach.. No i dont have the tool.. and the auto hobby shop doesnt either.. or atleast for my own use, i will call and see if there mechanic shop can do it..

EDIT: Zach, is this what i need?
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/MOG-K8695T/

 

MOOG Part # K8695T

31.89 on Rock Auto

 

Awsome thanks zabeard..

Ill have to call them to see if they will ship to an APO..

is this the correct upper? or do i need to get the whole control arm/ball joint assembly?
Moog AMGK80012 - Moog Ball Joints – SummitRacing.com

 

those will work only if you have the whole MOOG control arm now, if you do not then you need to buy the whole moog control arm.

 

that works.. that one is out of stock anyways. are the moog control arms good? its like 91 bucks on summit.. ouch lol.

 

you can also get them at oreilly auto parts. thats where i got my lowers..

 

looks like they ship to apo's... question though, is this the upper control arm/ball joint that i need?

Part number K8708T

 

ok guys,, so here is my shopping cart, is this what i need? oh and i have a coil pack on there, think thats what i need?

RockAuto Parts Catalog

 

don't forget about the discount codes at rockauto. search around here to get the updated ones

 

you need to copy and paste the cart here that link doesnt work

 

heres the cart..
that is a good point. forgot about the codes.. ill have to search for them

Suspension : Ball Joint
MOOG Part # K8695T
$31.89 $0.00 1 $31.89

Suspension : Control Arm
MOOG Part # K8708T {Control Arm w/Ball Joint}
$91.79 $0.00 1 $91.79


2000 FORD RANGER 4.0L 245cid V6 FI (X)
Ignition : Ignition Coil
MOTORCRAFT Part # DGE446 {#FOTZ12029A}
MFI; w/2 Pin Stator
$94.79 $0.00 1 $94.79

 

just saved almost 11 bucks from the discount code! thanks! i would have forgot about that lol

 

glad you got it worked out

 

yeah, just waiting for the parts to come in.. hopefully it will be here by the end of this week!

 

did you only order ball joints for one side?

 

Excuse my ignorance, but why would they go bad from being on a lift? You mean, the lift at the garage right? Just trying to learn a bit here.

 

They are not that bad. And you dont have to have the special tools. Just a bottle jack and big hammer. They will come rite out. I put them back in by putting the bottle jack under the ball joint and just hitting the arm, it will go rite in.

 

x2 but youll need that cup that fits around the ball joint that comes with the ball joint tool

 

I think we used a race driver. It worked pretty good too.

 

Yeah go ahead and replace both sides at once

 

well, dont really have the money as of right now to replace both sides.. So only got one side.. i will replace the other side As soon as i have the money..

 

Probably just a fluke that you ball joint went bad when it did, being raised on a lift would probably not cause it to go bad, but might of helped the process.
A better explanation is that the joint is just too small for what it has to do, case in point.
My '00 Supercab 4X2 rt. lower joint started making noise @ just 40K miles. I replaced all 4 of them with Moog units
True, the roads here rival those of a 3rd. world country (any Hawaii DOT guys reading this?) but now just 25K miles later the same joint is making noise again.
All 4 of them get lubed every 6K miles, so it's not from lack of lubrication.
In contrast, my '91 Supercab 4X2 never ever gave me ball joint issues, a testament to just how stout the twin I beam setup was.
Guess I gotta live with it..........

 

yeah, hopefully the moog's hold up.. dont feel like replacing ball joints every 30K miles lol..

I was thinking.. Would doing the coilover conversion help with this? For some reason i am under the impression that the coilover conversion helps take some of the stress off the front suspension.. Maybe i am way wrong.. just thinking lol