Oh, and I bought the Motorcraft ball joints from Amazon. They were less than $40 each.

 

Just guessing but it almost sounds like your front hubs are engaged, and the front axle ujoints are bad. take a look.
Also I am getting ready to do my ball joints,, and spent a lot of time sourcing parts for this job to save money. (nothing bought from the dealer) heres my list, I'm doing the whole shebang. Note: my truck is a 99 1/2 F-350 with a Dana 50 front.

4wd hub orings / Dorman 81060 - Amazon
Hub bearing to axle shaft / SKF B2110 -
Hub to knuckle Oring (yellow) / SKF 4A322 - $ 3.93 ea
Axle Shaft Seal / BRS-84 Motorcraft - $ 17.28
Moog ball joints K8607T & K80026 - Amazon $44.61 & $29.00 + fr shp w prime
Big ol seal on axle (pressed on) / SKF 28600 - 30.79
Frt Ax Ujoints grsbl / 5-733X - 35.14 4wheeldrivedotcom 5offany coup w fr shp ovr $75

everything else rockauto except as listed.
I saved considerably on parts cost but spent way too much time researching fitment.
But hey maybe this list will help save a few guys TIME and money.
Tip: my unit hub bearings are ok but I will be greasing these (socalled unserviceable) bearings through the ABS sensor hole / google it

 

northwindone, please do send anymore updates, especially if you track down your problem as I am having similar, not exact tho, and it may save me throwing money in wrong direction. thx and good luck troubleshooting.

 

And BTW, I happened to ask a really respected mechanic about my issue, (vibrates like crazy at 67mph, plus or minus 4mph) and he said he's seen where it was a binding rear brake...hmmm, kind of along the lines you were thinking also.
Especially now that mine is vibrating at around 40mph, and SHUDDERS if I try to do anything close to a fast stop. (but I probably have new issues on top of old).
I'm gonna go see what I can do with the rear brakes tonight. I'll try to post tomorrow as to any improvements.
Regards.

 

I will definitely update when I figure out what it is. I'm always sure to update on any forum when I find the solution to a problem. One of my pet peeves is when someone comes on a forum to ask a question and never updates to say what fixed it.

I ordered all the parts yesterday for replacing the ball joints, ordered everything on Amazon and saved a bunch of money over the local parts stores. I may know in the next week or two if that fixed it. That is assuming I get time to work on this weekend and the parts I bought are correct. Working 70 hours a week is not friendly for personal projects. I was getting conflicting results for some of the part numbers fitting my truck or not being that it is a late ’99, but has an early ’99 front end. The build date was in March of ’99 so it has all the late ’99 components except for the front axle components. From what I’ve read though, it shouldn’t matter too much since I’m not replacing the hub or changing the brake rotors. Even if it doesn’t fix it, my ball joints needed replaced anyway. The next thing I’ll probably do if that doesn’t fix it is take the rear calipers off and service the slide pins. Should be a quick and easy job on my truck since I don’t have much corrosion.

 

My hubs were the first thing I checked, but I would agree that is what it seemed like.

Thanks for the list. I ended up buying everything on Amazon, although some of the prices on rock auto were cheaper I have Amazon prime so it was cheaper on Amazon after shipping. I will say that Rock auto has some great prices and an easy to use parts finder. Amazon is horrible for finding parts; you have to know the exact part number in order to find stuff. I did end up going with the Moog ball joints due to their reputation. However, the rest of the parts I bought whatever was cheaper as long as it was a brand that I trusted.

 

I got my passenger side torn apart over the weekend, waiting for some seals to be delivered before I can continue, so I'll probably rebuild my hub locks and service my brake slide pins while I'm waiting.

Anyway, the main point of this update is that I had no idea how bad my ball joints were until they were off the truck! I removed the lower one with a large socket and hammer (I'll leave the upper until I have a press in hand). I was able to spin the spindle and watch rusty dust pour out of where the seal used to be, I ended up with a pile of rust in my hand. After spinning it for a while the socket was so loose that it almost felt like you could pull it apart by hand. The upper doesn't seem this bad, but it was still in need of replacement. My truck only had the symptoms of a thump when stopping, which went away, and then this vibration problem lately. It seems as though very bad ball joints don't always have real bad symptoms. I'll be working on it again this weekend, so hopefully I'll know if it fixed the vibration problem. However, for how bad these were, I'm extremely glad I replaced them even if it doesn't fix it.

Although I’m done yet, I wanted to thank Racerguy (https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/3...ll-joints.html ), and 1975StroppeBaja (2004 F250 Super Duty 4x4) for their excellent write-ups for ball joint replacement. I read them about 20 times before I started. I was stuck getting the lower ball joint free, but after breaking down and using 1975StroppeBaja’s idea of using a gear puller, I was able to get it off after a few minutes of putting tension on it, swearing, and tapping on it. I ended up using a small gear puller on the tie rod end as well since my harbor freight pitman arm puller snapped before it even budged.

 

Thanks for your write-ups and descrpitions NorthWind. Appreciate it.

 

Hiya Northwind keep us posted.
For breaking any tapered fit joint, I always use some sort of pry bar to leverage tension between the joint, and use an air hammer on female side of joint, pops em right apart, presto like. A sharp blow from decent size hammer also works very well.
NOTE: On the Ball joint Assembly, make sure you follow the torque procedure, or it's possible you could end up with binding steering.

here is a very cool video, i think its a f450, so outer hub is a lil different otherwise, same process.
Super Duty Ball Joint Replacement Part I - Removal HD720 - YouTube

 

Thanks for the video link, I didn't think there was a video that showed this being done. I found on the lower ball joint that once put tension on it and then gave the ears a good couple good wacks that it broke loose (I don't have a air hammer, and I was working outside and trying avoid dragging my compressor outside), same thing on the end-link. Looks like I had the right idea from watching the video, although he didn't have to do anything but hit it with the sledge a few times.

 

For anyone following my progress on this thread, I ran into an obstacle. It appears that my hub seals failed, the yellow o-ring, and let water into the driver’s side hub bearing. While it hasn’t failed yet, it appears that it’s close to doing so. Instead of paying $400-500 for the correct early ’99 hub bearing, I have decided to convert over the late ’99 hub bearings and rotors. By doing this it will be cheaper than just buying a single early ’99 bearing and I’ll have replaced both bearings and have new brake rotors (I’m at least glad that I procrastinated getting my rotors turned, that would have been a waste of money). I think I’m going to go with the Precision brand hub bearing and Wagner rotors (already bought some Wagner pads, I know it doesn’t matter, but the price was right)…unless of course anyone has any compelling reasons not to go with either of those two brands.

Also, the driver’s side was extremely easy to tear down after doing the passenger side, probably only took about 20 minutes. It’s amazing how much faster this stuff goes once you’ve already done it once. The hardest part this time was getting the locking hub out. Had to whack it a few times with a rubber mallet to get it loose. The other side slid right out, but it looks like a little water got into the out hub area as well and caused the grease to gum up. Steering knuckle was easy to get off, as was the lower ball joint, I think they were both stuck just as much, but this time I knew how to get them off on the first try. The lower ball joint on the driver’s side was even worse, even though after seeing the passenger side I didn’t think that was possible.

 

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.

Well I thought I would post an update on this fiasco...

I ordered all the parts near the beginning of the month. Precision bearings from Amazon and the other parts from Amazon as well, mostly Motorcraft and a few other trustworthy brands. I also ended up buying new u-joints since it was a convenient time to replace them. (Those steering axle u-joints are $$$ for good ones). There ended up being a mix up with amazon and the hub bearings, when everything was said and done I ended up shipping 3 of them back to them at their expense. I ended up ordering some Timkens from someone else, probably should have started with them. Plus the Timkens came with seals and steering knuckle studs, unlike the others. I now have some $30+ studs to return to the local dealer.

Anyway I finally got around to the u-joints last weekend and that went smooth. Started on the ball joints on Tuesday and had little problems once I got the right press and adapter rented. Everything had been soaking in PB Blaster for several weeks so I’m sure that helped. Put the passenger side together on Wednesday and got the driver’s side yesterday. So I’ve got new hub bearings, ball joints, rotors, pads, seals, steering stabilizer, and freshly serviced brake slide pins. After doing the ball joints it will be an easy job. In fact, when I was doing the front, the brakes just seemed like the final details after the real work was done.

Took it for a test drive this morning with my wife following, just in case. Steering is 100% better, no more wander, even my wife was impressed with the improvement with steering when she drove it. Unfortunately, I still have the stupid vibration when coming to a stop. My wife though she though some shimmy in one of my back wheels. She test drove it as well so I could watch, I didn’t see anything, but she swore it was coming from the back. She may be right since there isn’t any vibration in the steering wheel at all which indicates the back. I’m going to tear apart the rear brakes next weekend and go ahead and replace or turn the rotors and put in new pads. I’ll also be sure the service the slide pins just as I did up front.

 

I realize this is an old thread, but I have the exact same problem. I too have replaced front pads, rotors, and hubs. Vibration continues. What was the cause of your problem? Transmission?

 

Didn't see your post until this morning...

My problem appears to be the rear brakes, but I still haven't gotten around to fixing them. The ball-joint replacement was needed and I'm glad I did it, but it did not fix the main problem.

 

Thanks. Looks like mine is from tire cupping. Got new Michelin XPS Traction tires and the tread is uneven. I think it was from a bad shock and have replaced the shocks. I haven't checked the ball joints, but that could also be a contributor. I finally happened to notice the vibration did not occur when braking on sand/gravel. that was the tip that the noise/vibration was rubber on asphalt.