Tuesday I have an appt to do all the ball joints.
Which ball joints? Moog, Ford or Raybestos?
I've had Moog on my last van with no issues...
While Ford's parts are fine, is the Raybestos better?
\
Anything else in there that should be replaced while the front is apart?

Quoted price for labor and parts $650. Sounds ok?

 

Moog parts are absolutely excellent. Raybestos can be hit or miss, very often miss. Do it right the first time, and you wont be back a second time dropping more big cash.

Moog ball joints are 50 bucks a pop for lowers, and 25 bucks a pop for uppers in my local area. Making parts 150 bucks. My local shop charges me 45/hr for labor, though i suppose some shops charge more. The job requires an alignment be performed, ensure they are doing that. The task itself should take a well equipped, experienced mechanic no more than 4-6 hours.

I would ask what their shop rate is, and how many hours the labor rates book says this job is. If that price includes parts, they are charging you 400 bucks for labor and shop supplies. That seems quite high at ~80/hr. If they are charging you 650 for labor, talk a walk somewhere else.

 

that price also included the alignment...

Moog it is, I just needed one person to say something so I could get the demons out of my head lol

thanks.
And the shop said 3.5 to 4 hours, they're knowledgeable.

 

Since your shop is going to be pretty deep into the van, depending on the miles, it might be a good time to check/replace front shocks, and check the rotors, pads, and bearings out. If they repack the bearings (and they should,) they will have to replace the seals on both rotors. Wont kill you to ask, but good shops will let you know once they begin tear down if they find anything obvious.

 

thanks, Shocks are good/Bilstiens w/ 40k miles. Only 64,xx miles on van. Brakes are good/ recently checked myself. The only items would be bearings, seals and bushings.

Again, thanks for the input.

 

Surprised all the talk about Econoline ball joints hasn't included TRW. When I let my Fingers Do The Walking I found large differences in pricing. Ended up going to one store for some of the ball joints & another store for the rest. Installed Moog & TRW ball joints. Consider them equal quality. Was told TRW made FORD OEM. Didn't know Raybestos even made ball joints.

 

Raybestos and Spicer are now the same. Spicer makes decent joints, but since they have branded them Raybestos the quality has been hit or miss for me. I dont know about vans, but for my excursion and my 1.5 Ton/F450 pickups I have not had particularly good luck with Raybestos. TRW is ford OEM, they sometimes are the maker behind NAPA and Autozone/Duralast.

 

as for shop rates, its unusual in my area to find one less than 80/hour. i'm about to change my rate (1 man show, mobile, minimal overhead) from 50 to 60 so i can better cover expenses

 

Around here, things are a bit rough. You can get body work done for 35-40/hr, gypsy/mobile mechanics can be had for 25 if you just need a wrench turner, decent ones are 45-ish. Independent mechanics shops usually go for 60-70, and there are a few dealers here going as low as 80. Not crummy we totes, but no kidding franchised dealers (Chevrolet.) The import dealers are still in the low 100-120 range. I negotiated our local ford dealer down to 65/hr for head work/studs on my 6.0 Excursion. Its a rough business, and for a mobile mechanic, rising fuel prices are eating them hard.

 

what part of the country are you in? here in seattle, we have to put up with microsoft, boeing, and other big-money companies, so prices tend to reflect that.

 

I am in Memphis. We have Fedex, International Paper, Autozone, and a few other fortune 500s. Nike, First TN bank, several casinos, Kroger, Northwest Airlines, and a few other companies have major presence here too. We also have some pretty heavy medical organizations, such as Methodist, Baptist, St Jude's, UT Med, etc.

Even with all that, unemployment here is STAGGERING, and poverty is rampant. I am a military brat, and used to live in the Bremerton/Silverdale area (submarine base.) I miss the pacific northwest...

 

The only caution I'd add is make sure your new ball joints have grease fittings. When pricing mine locally I was asked with or without Zerks--before digging into this myself I'd assumed only new manufactured vehicles use non-serviceable ball joints, that most all available in the aftermarket automatically had them.

BB you're probably already ahead on this but just in case you're not just a reminder...........

On the subject of labor rates et al: I was quoted just at $1,100 for labor/parts from a local [i]Beeline[/] shop, alignment would be another $70-170?!?! Remembering a somewhat distant but highly regarded heavy truck spring/frame shop they quoted me $300 labor only, alignment included, me supplying parts of my choice. While there I had them install my provided new urethane radius arm and axle pivot bushings too---raised the cost to a staggering $382---it definitely pays to shop around!

If the final cost for all four greaseable ball joints and alignment is $650 that's not a horrible price if someone doesn't have the space or tools to DIY. The upside is there will be a warranty of sorts which is never a bad thing when throwing that kind of money around.

 

I'm in the Charlotte area...
So $650 would be the upper price range?
Oddly that's the lowest price I got from 4 different places. One Ford Dealer said $1450.

 

yup, grease fittings on the new ones!

 

Price sounds right, I had a 4 done at same time with Moog 60k miles ago and all is still good.

Gonna have tie rods done as I am approaching 200k miles and a bit of play starting to hit.