Well that stinks! LOL...my 6 year old isn't strong enough to push/pull while I check, nor does he know a soccer ball from a ball joint. D'OH! Guess I'm doing it myself!

Question about the types of play between the two halves of the ball joint. Is it necessarily watching for the stud below to move in the hole, or has that nothing to do? That's the type of thing I've been told to check for, but not sure of that advice. Strange I've never had to diagnose ball joint failure before, but have helped run the rig to replace them on a different vehicle! Never knew what it was like when they were bad because my buddy already had the control arms removed, so didn't get to see this part! I appreciate your help!

 

A ball joint is nothing more than ball with a stud on it inside of a round socket. When it wears, the gap between the ball and it's socket increases. So you're looking for either up/down or side to side play of the stud that protrudes from the socket. Here is a picture of the inside of a ball joint, if it helps to visualize what I'm saying.

 

Interesting! I appreciate this!!! How often is it the ball that wears the seat instead of the other way 'round? Or is it always the ball that gets worn down? Wouldn't want to put in new ball joints just to find that the hole is the problem too!

 

Both the ball and socket wear. The ball joint will never wear enough to affect the hole in the control arm. Long before that would happen, the ball would pop out of the socket and the vehicle would swerve out of control.

 

That would be

 

Are the expi front end ball joints different than the F150 of the same era? What I have been reading here It sounds like its a problem with expis. I have owned and known the F150's with 200K 300k and more with no problems with ball joints.

 

They do seem to wear faster than I expected.

 

Why do I keep seeing in manuals that the ball joints for my 2000 Exp 4wd 4.6 are an integral part of the lower control arm, and cannot be changed without replacing the arm? And how do I obtain the clearence required to remove the lower arm/balljoint assy. from the knuckle? The torsion bar is siezed and won't slide in either end.Should I remove the cv axle?

 

Turn the steering wheel all the way over and you should be able to access the ball joint nut. Remove the nut, then use a ball joint fork to separate the ball joint from the steering knuckle.

 

I was able to remove the nut and separate the ball joint from the knuckle, but my problem is the control arm either hits on the knuckle or the ball joint hits the drive axle when trying to lift it up and out of the knuckle. The ball joint's threaded shaft won't quite clear the hole in the knuckle. As of now, I have disconnected the stabilizer link, the shock, and the pivot bolts from the lower arm.

 

You have to bend the stud of the ball joint over as you're extracting it from the knuckle. The more you extract the stud out of the hole, the more you will be able to bend the stud over. You should have just enough room to get it out.

 

I was checking out this old post and I am glad everyone had so much info and hopefully got lots of help.
FYI-I have put 60,000 rough miles on the Moog upper and lower ball joints and they're still going strong.

 

I have a 99 expedition at it just tears up the front end components...ball joints, Pitman arms, Idler arms, torsion bars, you name it.

I have seen so many complaints that I have just concluded the design is bad and that excessive wear is the result.

 

Are you replacing them with cheap parts or high end ones?

 

Prolly the expensive OE ones.