Hey guys, just got new tires on my truck (285/75R16 Cooper Discoverer A/T3's) my truck is an 02 F250 with the 7.3. I took it for an alignment last Friday. Turns out they couldn't do it because I need new upper and lower ball joints. I just did new wheel bearings, and was planning for a total suspension rebuild/freshen up, along with a lift and 35's on some 18x10's this summer. So it will have some bigger, wider tires on it at some point. The tires I just got now I'm going to run in the winter. There's also a chance that at some point I'll have even bigger and wider tires on it, but that won't be for a few years. I plan to keep this truck pretty much forever, so I want to put quality parts on it.


So I'm wondering what are good ball joints to run? I was thinking either Motorcraft or Moog. And I would like to have grease able ones. I just found the dynatrac ones online, those look really nice, and I like that they are rebuild able. I know they're really only needed for trucks running big and wide tires, which I might have someday, but like I said that won't be for a long while. And of course they're stupid expensive. So I don't really think that I need those right now, and don't really feel like dropping almost $600 on ball joints. But would consider it if someone can talk me into it haha.


So my Uncle, who does a lot of the work on my truck, or helps me with it, got me some prices. All of these are a price per each ball joint.

• NAPA: Upper $48.87 Lower $74.89
• Auto Zone (not really considering these, but have a price on them): Upper $37 Lower $57
• Motorcraft (directly from Ford): Upper: $56 Lower $89
• Just found prices for Moog online: From Moog-suspension-parts: Upper $46.8 Lower $70.61
• Moog from Rock Auto: Upper $27.79 Lower $41.79
• Motorcraft Grease able from Rock Auto. No idea if this are the same as what I listed above: Upper $35.79 Lower $30.79
• And the very cheap $560 Dynatracs haha.

The NAPA, Moog, and the Motorcraft from Rock Auto are grease able. Are the NAPA ones any good? Rock Auto lists grease able and non grease able "OE design" for the Motorcraft ones. The non grease able ones are more expensive. Which ones are better? I'm assuming the grease able ones? The Moog-suspension-parts website listed two different upper ball joints. One is the "regular" one and the other says "Dana 60 only." Is there a difference between the two? Do I need the Dana 60 only one?


I'm leaning towards the Moog's or the grease able Motorcrafts, or possibly the NAPAs. But I'm open to any recommendations you guys have. Let me know what you guys think, or of anything that you guys have had good success with. Thanks for any help!

 

Myself, and a lot of others on here and other powerstroke/cummins forums use the XRF brand ball joints. I have 65k on mine and still going strong. I strayed away from moog after hearing so many complaints about recent quality

 

If you are going to do this suspension rebuild in 6 months, I wouldn't bother doing the ball joints/alignment unless you are going to put a ton of miles before then (unless the truck has problems driving or a ball joint has punched through).

Replacing them now just means you'll be throwing away good parts in 6 months.

 

I've read great things about Raybestos "Professional Grade" Ball Joints. I ended up installing them in my "Cracked Heads Every Valve Rattle Oil Leaks Every Time" or C.H.E.V.R.O.L.E.T. for short so far the Ball Joints are great BUT typical Chevy - I don't drive it much. If you want reliability you need to go FORD! here's a link to a Raybestos video

 

Yeah I have kind of been hearing the same thing about Moog, but wanted to be sure. Thanks for the recommendation of the XRF ball joints! Those do look really good, look to have a good design and be quality. Where's everyone buying them from? Or do you just order directly from XRF? And how much did you pay for yours?



Yep fully planning to do the rebuild come summer time. I'm just very picky and don't ever plan on selling the truck, so with 285k miles on it, I don't want to have to guess what's good and what's not. And just want everything to be new and reliable and not have to worry about anything. Of course I know nothing is guaranteed haha. I was thinking the same thing on waiting but was curious to what some of you guys thought. I'm definitely not going to be putting a bunch of miles on it by then. The only time I have to drive it is to school and back. Which is an hour drive one way, but is only two days a week. I drive it more than that, but not that much. And the truck drives fine now, not perfect, but nothing extremely out of the ordinary to me. If I were to do them now, I would get quality parts and then reuse them once I do everything else. Unless that is not possible?



Thanks for suggestion of the Raybestos and the link to the video! Those look very nice, and look to have a good design as well. Where is everyone buying these from?


I'm now thinking the XRF or the Raybestos. Leaning towards the XRFs. Unless of course I decide to hold off till summer. Opinions?

 

When doing ball joints will you be changing the seals and u-joints?

I went with Moog for ball joints on mine. Only have a couple thousand miles though. U-joints go with Spicer non greasable and the seals I went with Motorcraft.

 

Forget about Moog. Every set I've ever installed had to have at least one replaced under warranty in under 5000 miles. They're made in China now and the quality is garbage.

I've been installing Raybestos ball joints since 2006. They're much better quality, are zinc plated and last a hell of a lot longer than the Moogs.

I have used NAPA joints in a TTB F250 once, and while overpriced, they are still in it today after 80k miles.

 

I put xrf in mine and was very happy with them. I got them from amazon and paid right around $100 for ball joints and seals for one side.

 

If you watch the Raybestos you tube, when it's over other videos populate the screen. If you click on the NAPA balljoint you tube you'll see that it is the same product as the Raybestos balljoint. However the Raybestos you tube offers a warranty, the NAPA did not.

 

Moog has gona down hill in quality recently for what ever reason, as for the NAPA can't speak to the quality but IIRC they are a 1 year warranty where the Autozones ones are a Life Time warranty (IIRC) (I can look it up later when im at work if you can get me your trucks info) and are very close to the Raybestos branded one I believe...

 

Back at end of Oct. First Nov. I put all new ball joints & tie rod/drag link parts in my 1999 250 SD 4x4. When I bought new tires for it, they said they couldn't align it because of the needed work. Their estimate was $1,900. So I did the job myself. Wasn't fun, thats for sure.
I bought all my parts from Advance Auto Parts, locally. Prices were a little higher than can be found at online places. But, they had ALL the parts & no waiting, lol
I used all MOOG heavy duty parts. Ball joints & tie rod parts. The uppers were $52.99 each, lowers $81.99 each. So was not cheap! As far as where they were made? I couldn't tell you. They seemed well made to me. I can tell you the truck has worked great since the install. Had it aligned also.

Gregg,

 

When I was much younger we did a big block engine swap into a Dodge Dart my buddy owned. When completed he took it to the alignment shop, who said it needed ball joints and tie rod ends. So, we replaced all of the ball joints and tie rod ends.

My buddy took the Dodge back, only to be told it needed ball joints and tie rod ends.........

 

Thanks you guys for the replies and input, much appreciated! I think I am going to go ahead and do the ball joints and alignment now, regardless of what I'm doing in the summer. Just to avoid any further issues until then, and I don't want to mess up my new tires. The alignment shop made it sound like they were pretty bad, and I have been getting a lot of clunking in the front end when going over bumps lately, and I'm thinking the ball joints might be the cause.


I think I am going to avoid Moog for now, just been hearing too much bad about them and don't want to take a chance. To me it looks like the NAPA, Autozone, and the Raybestos are roughly the same design, but would choose Raybestos out of that list. I think I am liking the XRF ones the most, with the Raybestos in second. Thoughts on this? And is amazon a good place to order them from, or should I order directly from XRF?


And on the need for ball joints; I trust the shop that we took it to, they've done good work on a few of our other trucks. And when they said it needed ball joints, they didn't even give us a price on doing it themselves. They just said that they couldn't do the alignment because of bad ball joints. Didn't charge us or anything, just told us to get it fixed and bring it back to them. So its not like they were trying to take money from us.



Not sure on this. I would be willing to. Do you have to mess with the u-joints to get to the ball joints? What things do you have to take apart to get to the ball joints? Adversely, what is there that you have to take the ball joints off to get at? Just thinking with the rebuild planned for the summer, it would be nice to not have to do things twice. But also don't want to spend a bunch of money now. It would be nice to not have to touch the ball joints again in the summer, if I'm replacing them now. Or at least be able to use them again in the summer. Opinions welcome!

 

The Cadillac is Spicer with Spicer grease. U joints and Ball Joints.

 

When you remove the wheel, then brakes then unit bearing then axle shaft with seals followed by tie rod and knuckle holding the ball joints. Hence the reason to replace it all, if it hasn't been done. U-joint are supposed to last 80k which means yours should have been changed at least three times already.

Check out this article.
2004 F250 Ball Joint Replacement