Well had a little free time today and figured I would install my new ball joints since I had 1/4 play in my passenger tire. As for the install, with the price the shops charge to do this work, I thought it was going to be diffucult. In reality its not all that bad. I watched a video on youtube of a guy walking you through it twice, and then went out and did the work. There were a few differences in the video and mine since I do have Warn hubs.

Well got it all done, and now that its done and what I found, I dont think it was ever my ball joints. I have not done anything major to this truck since Ive owned it, and the previous owner is not anywere as **** as I am about vehicles taking a guess. One of the spacers between the axle and the hub was broke, had to get a new one of those. Slide pins were getting pretty bad, so took care of that issue. There were a couple other things but nothing major, just me being ****.

As stated before, I dont think the problem was the ball joints for this one thing I found, glad I did because it was a disaster waiting to happen. Passenger side, which was were the play was, you have the hub with the 4 bolts that go through the steering knuckle, and the nuts on the inside of the nuckle. Well theres 4, what I found was one of the nuts missing completely, and two hanging on by threads. Only one was tight down, and that one still didnt take much to break loose. So thats where I think the play was coming from, and not the ball joints.

But after all this rambling, and the few hours of work, the truck is back together and driving right. For anyone that has fear of doing this, honestly its time consuming, but not hard.

Heres the link to the youtube video that I watched prior to it, pretty much everything there is spot on.


Thanks guys for the info on which brand ball joints some of you prefered.

 

I think I'm going to have to do this soon. Thanks for the words of encouragement.

 

Its really not bad, as always the second side is easier. Time consuming, but pay attention to how it comes out, and its a breeze.

 

I got to do mine, what do you guys suggest ford OEM or moog? alot of people tell me moog, Im just very **** about keeping my ford a ford. What is your guys opinion?

 

I went with XRF I think is what they are. Saw some good reviews on here, so im trying them out.

 

x2 , mine are on the work bench waiting for me. its about that time.
I got 8 yrs out of the last ones, but I don't no what the brand was on them. I think I bought them at koi auto parts or maybe carquest auto parts, heck I don't remember, I drank a lot back then.

 

+1 on XRF ball joints Ive installed them on three different trucks now. I'm not usually into brand names but the front ends on these trucks take a lot of abuse and I'm a big believer in Powerslot rotors, Bilstein 7100 shocks, and XRF ball joints. now if I could just find a tire that will give me more than 60K.

To the OP Did you pull your Warn hubs apart while you had them out and repack them? I recently did the ones on my truck and my dads truck and three of the four hubs were a bit dry. One of my hubs had the rear cerclip undone and the hub had come apart. Luckily there was no damage.