I am getting ready to do several mods to my 01 4x4 7.3 Excursion with 197,000 miles and the last thing I am stuck on is which ball joints to use. The threads I found were mostly from 3-4 years ago, so I am wondering if there is any updated information out there. I have a friend who is a heavy diesel mechanic (and also owns a F-250 7.3) and he swears by the Ford OEM ball joints (I would tend to agree with him based on the mileage I have gotten out of mine) but not the Motorcraft ones that most Ford dealers now carry. I know there for a while many people were putting on the Moog joints but then there was talk about the quality going downhill. Some of the other brands floating around are Dana/Spicer and TRW.


What are your guys' current thoughts on this topic? I am still trying to track down the proper Ford part #'s. Is there a way to tell from the Ford part # if it is made by Ford or Motorcraft? Any other brands to consider (Mevotech, etc.)? I would prefer ones with grease fittings, if possible. If it does come down to the Motorcraft ones, does anybody know what the part #'s are for the greasable ones?


I don't really have the money for the Dynatrac ball joints.


Thanks in advance.

 

XRF ball joints work well for many of us.

 

I'm in the same boat & believe XRF & RAYBESTOS Professional Grade
will be the consciences.

 

I have also heard good things about XRF. Not that this is a bad thing, but aren't the Raybestos Professionals made by or are the same as Dana/Spicer?

 

I have no idea

 

I've had good experiences with XRF, their pricing is right AND they offer a "million mile warranty"

Also, they come very highly recommended from people in the Dodge world and those trucks are very hard on ball joints.

Moog used to be decent quality but lately (last couple of years from my reading) there's been reports that it's a toss up as to where your Moog parts are actually made and some of the manufacturing locations aren't *** good as others. It's hard to find out exactly where your Moog parts will be coming from.

I had Raybestos ball joints once and they didn't last at all. Maybe 15k and they had to be replaced again.

 

My last Raybestos Professional hubs in our Mountaineer didnt get 25K miles before grinding themselves to a loose wobbly death. Kind of soured me on Raybestos anything..I have Moogs in mine. You cant leave the grease fittings in the uppers though as engaging 4x4 would destroy them. I have to screw grease fittings in to service the ball joint, then remove. Or you counld fiddle with flush mount zerks. FWIW, The shop that I had do my uppers (was in a time crunch) claimed that the lowers almost never wear out and they are along for the ride, but the uppers take the beating. I have a full set of Moog steering components in the garage as well.

 

Thanks guys for the help. I think I am leaning towards XRF as I haven't heard anything negative about them yet, only positive. I still Ford too but, as I said before, I don't know if it is even possible anymore to get them instead of the Motorcraft manufactured ones. Plus I don't know if the Fords would come with the grease fitting.

 

"I had Raybestos ball joints once and they didn't last at all. Maybe 15k and they had to be replaced again. " <!-- / message --> <!-- sig --> __________________


As specified they must be the "Pro" line.

 

"The shop that I had do my uppers (was in a time crunch) claimed that the lowers almost never wear out and they are along for the ride"


That's interesting... So the shop did only your uppers ??

 

Yes. Still fine 10k miles later. It was a local shop that I trust. They maintain a few fleets and say they do uppers only all the time on the Fords. Idk, but they had it apart where it would be easy to do and still recommended that I only need the uppers. Only time will tell.

 

COOL That will save some time & money...I recon I'll add some zerks to the lowers instead of replacement if they look good.

 

Oh they were "pro" all right...

 

Motorcraft is Ford. Motorcraft parts are basically maintenance parts. The upper ball joints are greaseable. The lowers are not. Two years unlimited miles warranty on Ford (Motorcraft) parts.

 

I did mine this past summer with Ford OEM they weren't bad yet but wanted everything done before my summer vacations...I look at it like this, ford gives me a 2 year parts and labor on them and I got 196k miles on oem on my previous Ex. And at 130k my current EX did not need them, but I have a sickness so had all front end redone.