Well I ended up closing the deal on the 2003 limited that needed a little bit of work and drove it home today. Had some vibration on the front drivers wheel after I had been on the freeway for about an hour, figuring it was from the bad ball joints.

I also noticed that on the freeway on some of the rougher patches that the ex would jump a little bit, is this from the bad ball joints as well?

I found the link showing the full walk through for the ball joints and yea that looks like its going to be fun but on the topic of brand, I have seen a few people talk about the XRF ball joints and wondering if there is any reason to not go with these? I like the price and they have the grease fitting and i noticed something about a million mile warranty, I will refrain from the tommy boy quote here but want to make sure this is not something I have to do any time soon again if ever.

I am going to be ordering the new hubs to go manual and will be getting new pads and rotors for the front as well, and figuring to do most all of this at the same time.

On the topic of rotors I know there are more than a few threads focusing on that topic of slotted or drilled or plain and what not and I have already decided to go plain and most likely the green stuff pads but is there a major difference in the different chain store rotors? I have seen someone ref the oreilly ones with a lifetime warranty, anybody else have luck with some from someplace else, like advance or auto zone?

I will try to get some pictures up soon but very happy to finally have one of these after putting in all the hours of searching these last 7 or 8 months.

have a great weekend

thanks,

 

Welcome to the club!

As far as a brand of ball joints goes, I can't help you much but bad or worn units NEED to be replaced asap.

My personal suggestion for rotors would probably go with a good quality cryo treated unit. I have powerslot cryo treated, slotted rotors with hawk hp plus pads on my car (wrx with many mods). I'll likely go the same route with the rotors on my Ex.

If you have a friend who is familiar with ford super duty's you may want to ask them to give your new truck a once-over just to be sure you repair/replace anything that may present an immediate safety issue.

 

We just had a rotor thread on here you can read.....I think there were several suggestions involving cryo's.......and also a Napa rotor with Hawk pads.
Balljoints......XRF seem to be the most popular these days......I used TRW lifetimes from advance because it was all I could get when I needed them fast......they have been good for over 75k miles with no issues.....I would have gotten the XRF's .....they will help with the wandering......you may need a steering gear....or at least an adjustment.....if you have the money swap out to a redhead steering gear......it's next on my list having adjusted my current gear twice already.Red-Head Steering Gears

Welcome to the site !

 

Congrats on your new X.

The SO and I also bought one today after much shopping. 2003 7.3 liter Eddie Bauer version, one owner.

A thing to research is the infamous X 'wander', where the steering play feels excessive, and the X darts all over the road.

The reason is the flat and weak leaf springs, and something called spring windup - sounds odd, but do the searches and you will see. The fix is to replace them with the "V" (front) and "B" (rear) leaf springs from a F250 SD truck. I'm already getting best prices for the springs, shocks, and stabilizer bar. Having said that, other things to consider are alignment, ball joints, steering damper, tire pressure (more is generally better up to a point), and tire wear. So check 'em all out - I am.

Anyway - good on ya and hope your X is a keeper! Nice to have someone else take the plunge the same time we did.

Flinch

Former '99 SD 7.3 liter owner, and kicking myself for selling it!!!!
2005 VW Passat TDI diesel (ok, it's a baby diesel!)