Well, after 180,000 miles, the ball joints (specifically the driver side ball joint) have shown it's time for replacement by making terrible creaking noises with any movement of the steering wheel or suspension.

I've never replaced ball joints before so I'm ignorant when it comes to this on the Excursion.

First: What ball joints do you all recommend? From the little searching I've done, it seems that Moog is the way to go..? There's three places I can purchase locally from: Autozone, O'reilly, Ford dealership, and a Carquest. Which store would be the best to purchase from?

Second: What exactly is going to be required to tackle this job? I saw Toreador's nice little write-up from this thread: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...-need-2wd.html Is there anything else that anyone else wants to add or throw in?

Third: Is there anything else that should be replaced and would be easy to do since I'll be working up in the front anyways? Some people mentioned bushings for the radius arms and the I-beams. How about new bearings and such? Perhaps new tie rods?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

I just did mine and used the moogs. They're nice. If you need any brake work, rotors pads etc. might as well do it now. You will have to have a ball joint press for sure, I borrowed one from a friend. And some trustworthy jack stands. Other than that it's pretty straight forward.

 

I failed to mention in that article that if you haven't already done so, spend the extra cash and do the tie rods. You're already down there and you have to pull the tie rod ends to get the hub off anyhow...

It'll all cost a pretty penny, but when your steering is tight as hell you'll be glad you spent the extra cash and effort.

 

Yeah, I noticed that you said to go ahead and get the tie rods done as well. I'm going to work on getting those as well.

I'm curious to know why you said to install the grease zerks backwards..? Does this provide easier access when it comes time to grease the joints?

 

Yes, that is the exact reason why...

 

Sounds good.

Any idea where to find front stabilizer bar bushings for our Excursions? What are the best bushings to use anyways? Energy bushings?

 

You'll have to go with Ford OEMs, Energy doesn't make a bushing for the 2wd front sway bar...

 

And that's for both the end link bushings and those other two sway bar bushings?

I really just need the two sway bar bushings as those are nicely deteriorated.

I can wait on the end link bushings.

 

Oh, and is there any other brands that have the bushings or is OEM the only solution? I'd prefer polyurethane bushings for the sway bars but if not, I can't go wrong with the motorcraft bushings.

 

For both I'd go to the dealer, I searched and search Energy and came up with nothing on either...

 

Do the 4WD and 2WD Excursions have different size front sway bars?

Energy has 36mm frame mounted bushings for the bar. If they both use the same size bar, that 36mm would work also for the 2WD Excursions.

 

Just answered my own question. Ed has two different bars at different prices for the 2WD and 4WD Excursions.

When replacing the frame mounted stabilizer bar bushing...should I also replace the mounting bracket? Or can I get away with just getting the bushing and reusing the brackets that are on there now?

 

All I could find were OEM bushings also. The brackets should be fine unless your bushings were completely gone. when you have the tire jacked up you can rock the tire side to side to check for bearing play. you can rock it up and down to check for ball joint play, or get behind the wheel with a crow bar and check for play.

 

Does anyone have the part numbers for the bushings for a 2003 2wd ex 6.0L? By the way is the RWD ex a mono or twin I beam? I keep seeing that in the parts catalog. Twin I think.