looking to spend some refund $$... Quote from local Les Schwab for "heavy duty" upper and lower ball joints, both sides (duh) plus alingment is gonna run me $601. Sound reasonable? I got two other quotes and one shop seemed shady.... BTW this was the middle quote and adjust prices for California when you judge

 

Wish I had a better frame of reference. Did ball joints last about five years ago and a buddy has a press for them so it only cost me the parts money and a six-pack.

 

I did ball joints recently in my 93 Bronco XLT along with wheel bearings and seals, spindle bearings and seals, and tie rods(Installed many other unrelated parts at the same time). I did get a quote from a shop before I did the work myself so if I can find it I will let you know within 24 hours. Its highly recommended that you install new wheel bearings and seals which the shop should know and have included in your quote. Theres a couple other seals that were worn out that I replaced but I didnt know it until I tore everything apart. Whats the reason your having a shop do it rather than do it yourself?

 

You will save hundreds of dollars doing this yourself. I know I did a huge upgrade and did rotors/hubs, calipers, pads, upper and lower balljoints, replaced a steering knuckle, and the joints in the shafts, along with all the bearings and seals. It all ran me about $425.

If you feel like doing this swap yourself, I have an extra set of knuckels with new Moog ball joints already pressed in. PM me if your interested, that would make things a bit easier and quicker for you.

 

I did the job within the last two years on my 95 Bronco. There are a few threads here about doing it. The quote I got was almost $1000. I did it for about $200 in balljoints (and 6mm 12 point socket for abs sensor bolt). It takes some pounding to get it apart and I have 20 ton shop press to make joint replacement simpler.

 

thank you for all your responses.

I am a procrastinator (still have a fresh 400 for my 79 collecting dust from last summer) so if its gonna get done, I'm taking it in Saturday. better safe than sorry!

 

I couldn't find the quote I got from my local shop but I would say it sounds reasonable. You didn't comment on if bearings and seals were included. From what I was told and what I read its highly recommended to replace them anytime you remove the hub. Can someone else comment on this? Bearings and races every time? If more than two months old? New bearings but old races are okay if fairly new? What happens if you don't replace them?

 

Most good bearings will come with new races IIRC. Depends what caused you to replace the bearing, if the bearing was bad then most likely the race is bad too as they work as a set.

 

If you take it to a shop make shure they use MOOG parts. You dont want made in China parts on your Bronco.