I just did the basic test when you jack up the front end and wiggle the tires side to side and top to bottom to see if there is play in them. the Top to bottom wiggle test seemed pretty good with maybe only a eighth to a quarter inch of play from top to bottom... the side to side test was a bit worse with maybe a inch of play side to side on both sides. Am I correct in thinking that the ball joints are good but the tie rod ends may need replacing?

 

When you did the top to bottom wiggle did you look to make sure the play was not in the wheel bearings? If the bearings were good then it sounds like you need both ball joints and tie rod ends.
The play may onl;y have been in the bottom ball joints but you would need to check.
Just my opinion.

 

it could have been in the bearings... seemed like it was moving from the center not the joints... i'll check again later, thanks

 

yeah there should be darned near zero play in the ball joints-

 

the top to bottom was very minimal, like I said maybe an eighth of an inch on 31 inch tires isn't much. Whats got me more worried is the occasional heavy grinding I hear from the front end when I stop or if I'm turning slow, or stopping with the wheels turned all the way... sometimes its more of a creaking noise, but mostly a grinding... goes away within a second, seems to be only when under more stress on the front end

 

1/8" of play is borderline bad for balljoints. Most manuals will tell you that anything over 1/8" in too much, I replace ball joints with more than 1/8" of play.

 

good to know... looks like that's my next project, may as well repack bearings and do shocks and tie rods and u-joints while i'm in there

 

I just did this on my truck last weekend. I would also recommend replacing the radius arm bushings as well.

Scott

 

do the 95 f150 auto hubs have rebuildable bearings or are they a one piece unit on this truck? I've never done bearings before, any good source for step by step instructions would help alot thanks

 

How long did it take you to do, and how hard was it?
Joe

 

im doing the radius arm bushings ,wheel bearings,ball joints on 1994 f-150 4x4. its really not bad when you think about it, its just time consuming. plus my truck is a northern truck so the rust helps alot.

 

that's funny... if it wasn't for the rust I don't think my truck would still be holding together. The only problem I have is that now that i'm layed off I have to buy parts a little at a time til I get everything then put it all together, so it will probably take me a month to get everything together so I can start doing stuff

 

Count on a whole weekend for the project. It was my first time doing it so I had to inch my way through.

 

the total from advance auto for "oe brand" greasable ball joints,wheel bearings and races was 155.50. then the radius arm bushings,brake pads,and some other stuff from carquest was 70.00. that killed me but my ball joints were hammered.

 

I bought the tie rod ends, drag link, ball joints, and pitman arm from a guy on ebay for $200 shipped to my door. The Moog radius arm bushings were purchased at Autozone for $44.