skuteman -- IMHO...I would take the truck to another shop. Tell them the situation, but DO NOT tell them you just had the front-end rebuilt. See if they come up with anything...and if so...take it back to the place that did the work...and bring it to there attention.
My F250 has 71,000 miles and it wanders while going down the rode. I was told the ball joints usually need replaced around 70,000 miles. How can I diagnose whether the ball joints are the problem? I saw it done once on another vehicle where they jacked it up and pried somehow on something but can't remember how it's done. I don't know if grabbing the tire and attempting to move it by hand to diagnose the ball joints is possible on something this heavy duty.
Jack the front of the truck up put on jack stands ,leave the tires on it.
take a Bar or 2x4 about 6ft long slide it under the tire .use it as a pry bar up against the tire look at the upper/lower ball joints looking for any movement
up down or side to side.
Hope this helps ya
Rich
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I have another idea for removing the hub assembly.
I saved my old brake rotors (to make a base stand for a birdhouse). I put the rotor on backwards to the wheel studs and used the old rotor as a pounding area. Both of my hubs came off in seconds.
I have a question:
Do you need to get a front end allignment after replacing the ball joints?
One other note.
My 2000 SD 4x4 crew cab has 67k miles.
I thought it was the ball joints, as it turned out it was the passenger side axle universal joints that were frozen.
I lifted the front end up off the ground and using a big pry bar checked all the joints for loose and all seemed ok but at 67k miles and Ohio salt I thought it a good idea to replace everything.
No tire wear or other symptoms were noted.
The truck made crazy pulling or wobble feelings after making a turn which mad me stumped as this is not a normal indication of a wear item AND it was not every time, it would make this wobble then go away for weeks.
So if you feel a strange pulling or wobble out of the front end the axle u joints could ba bad.
You shouldn't need an alignment after you replace ball joints, if the alignment was good before. If you haven't had it checked in a long time though it wouldn't hurt to have it done.
Seized axle u-joints can sure cause some strange handling issues and it's not all that uncommon.
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ohio,just becareful with the amount of pounding you do with that rotor on there.
You can destroy the wheel bearing hub.
we use brass or alum punches on the 4 studs on the back of the knuckle
might take a few more mins. but no cause for a wheel bearing hub to go bad though
Just thought i'd mention that
Rich
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I learned a little trick on jeeps and am wondering if it would work on my ford.
on the jeep you could (after clearing brake hardware out of the way) un bolt the hub, and with a slide hammer take the entire hub, axle shaft out still attached. Looks like on the supaer duty it would require tapping the large seal out as well.
Anyone done this?
I orderd Moog joints and made a trip to the stealership for the 102.00$ worth of seals...
I've got an 2003 F250 SD with 52,000 kilometers on it. A couple of days ago it developed a horrible squeal in the front end. The noise happens only when the truck is being actively steered. If I'm cruising in a straight line, there is no squeal. I lifted the truck and everything in the front seems nice and stable. There's no play in the wheels. Also, if I move the steering wheel back and forth with the key on and the engine off, the squeal occurs as well. It's coming from the inner part of the wheels. All my steering linkage grease points are up to date, as I do them every time I change the oil.
I'm thinking I need to change the ball joints, but it seems like the ball joints should last longer the 52,000 kilometers.
Any thoughts?
For the recoord, the bering and all will pull right out without removing it from the shaft, but there is no real advantage to it cause you have to disasemble it to put it back together with that big seal.
All in all I wouldn't do it again for the first time,, but now that I have done it I could finish in half the time...
Racerguy,
Kudos on the excellant article about ball joints. I am in the middle of replacing some on a F-250 Super and was wondering if you could clarify line #18 of your article about removing the ball joints with the pickle fork. Since they are both in a pressed postion which joint do you leverage first. or apply pressure to break the knuckle loose. And after you have the knuckle out do the ball joints press up or down? The u-joints on the axles do not have any retaining clips? How are those pressed out? Thank you.
I usually break the top ball joint loose first and then do the bottom one.
The top one has the camber sleeve so pay attention to that. If it moves you'll want to mark it's position in case it pops right out.
The ball joints both press in from the top. You'll see that they have a lip on them so they'll only go in one way.
The axle U-joints do have retaining clips. They are just a C type of clip on the inside of the yoke part of the axle. Just use a screwdriver and hammer to tap them out.
Let us know how it goes.
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Don't bother going to your local parts house for the seals. Neither AutoZone, Oreilly's, Advanced or NAPA even had a listing for them in there books. I picked up the seals from my local Ford delaer today. I'm putting everything back together tonight using the instructions listed in this post. The instructions are right on for what I've done so far. Thanks
Racerguy,
Thanks again for your help. I am deep into this project now. The salt and magnesium chloride they use in winter sure welds those parts together. I have used lots of penetrating fluid and patience. I got the camber plug to loosen up and then the bottom joint finally gave way and dropped out. So I am in the middle of knuckle cleanup and pressing out the old joints, and then to AutoZone if I need the press kit to complete the work. I looked back at a previous post where the part numbers and cost were listed and I have to say the prices for those special Ford seals has really jumped. I have noticed that some of the Ford dealers are using a software program called Trademotion to sell parts on the internet, but it is still a work in progress and incomplete on some items. From what I could see there is about a 25% mark up when you go to the counter to buy the parts in person, but then you have to factor in shipping also. It is going well thanks to your letter (post).
It sure does pay to shop around. You might also want to ask if they can sharpen their pencils a bit with the pricing. On some parts they have some room to move.
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Ball Joint Project
