I was out doing a little offroading today, and as soon as we came out of the mud I noticed that my steering was pulling to the driver's side quite a bit. I was optimistic and assumed I would just need an alignment, but after rinsing off a few layers of dirt I noticed my ball joint sticking out of the passenger side upper control arm. Can someone tell me what the hell I did, and what the hell I need to do to fix it?

Damaged passenger side UCA:


Normal (I think) driver side UCA:


It also looks like the springs and shocks are leaning on both sides:


I couldn't get one of the spring/shock lean pictures to load, but you get the idea.

 

Springs/shocks are normal, they don't sit competely verticle.

Drivers side balljoint looks like its about to fall out of the arm!

Rear of the passenger side arm looks like its cracked at the back right ??

 

i would definetly get a new balljoint in the arm ASAP, or at least see if you can get that one pressed back in

 

just needs to be pressed back in

 

Is this something that could be done at my local Kauffman tire?

 

That mud shows alot...

 

They're usually held in with a clip after being pressed. It might be missing or broken. Somebody might have left it off when the arm/joint was assembled. Fix it soon.

 

I am really looking at how much danger I'm putting myself in by driving around with the truck like this. I need to drive it to work tomorrow, and hopefully Monday I can have it somewhere to be fixed. Is this something that can be remedied at my local Kauffman's, because I assume I'll need it realigned, and I have a 6 month guaruntee from them. Or will I need to take it to a 4x4 shop and have them order a part? Thanks!

 

I would take it to whoever put them in...
I would drive it as little as possible...

 

Also, not sure if this thread is the right place to post this, but since my offroading incident today I noticed a pretty distinct smell coming from the radiator/fan area. Could the revving I did getting in and out of mud have damaged anything radiator related... or could it just be mud stuck up in somewhere I have yet to get cleaned up?

 

Assuming that a repressing is all that is required, what kind of cost am I looking at?