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Replace the shocks, fix the play, if not the wheel bearings loose it will be the ball joints
Get that fixed and the death wobble should be gone, the tire wear might straighten out too
Usually, it is just the lower ball joint or the upper, replace them both once you remove the knuckle
I've been a front end man for 40+ years
It's actually a easy job if you know how to do it
It is time consuming and expensive
For labor, I charge about 300 a side on a 2 wheel drive and about 400 a side on a 4x4
Flat rate labor time, ball joints pay roughly 1.2 hours each
Thanks for the help guys. Bought the ball joints a while ago without even knowing they were bad. just went on a shopping spree anything front end related. Unfortunately probably bought subpar shocks(equivalent to what’s already on there atleast) so will have to wait for the new ones to come to do it right the first time(going with KYB) got quoted 500 and 800(different shops) to install both. the $500 quote is the one that has been fixing everything now. so good deal I guess based on how much you’d do them for?
Last edited by dodgeorramit; May 21, 2026 at 10:53 AM.
Any new shock will feel better than one with 260k miles on it. I'd jump all over that $500 labor charge for two front shocks. Radius Arm bushings still good? I'd definitely look at those. Sway bar bushings ok too? Now that you're down there may as well look and replace bushings. The parts are cheap. The labor OTOH....$$
Any new shock will feel better than one with 260k miles on it. I'd jump all over that $500 labor charge for two front shocks. Radius Arm bushings still good? I'd definitely look at those. Sway bar bushings ok too? Now that you're down there may as well look and replace bushings. The parts are cheap. The labor OTOH....$$
$500 for joints and shocks. adding pictures cause i dunno. first 2 pictures are front left and 3rd is front right
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Right, you are not getting your ***** broke at 5 beans
The KYB shocks will be fine
Those cams in the upper ball joint are the stock factory cams that are round
Replacement ones from Ford et al. have a hex head
The alignment guy might want to change those
I doubt the camber / caster is correct still with those factory cams in it
Tire shop pointed out a bunch of frame rust in the near middle but closest to rear and the side skirts/panels are going bye-bye after foolishly driving during the snow storm nj got. i use rockauto and a mix of ebay for parts if you are able to send links on what to buy as I have no idea what the names of anything are tbh lol. I was sent on a goose chase to auto parts stores cause they didn’t include any hardware with the parts I bought the first time. was a pain
The front end looks amazingly clean and rust free.
If the rust hasn't punched a hole in your panels, there are easy ways to stop it from getting worse. There's Rustoleum Rust Reformer that will turn rust into a paintable surface. Or there's Fluid Film in standard or black that puts a protective Lanolin based coating onto the steel surfaces to prevent more rust from spreading (don't use on exhaust). There are other compounds if you Google Search using AI you will get a list.
this issue has sadly completely ruined my front right tire… nail went into the tire cause ofc this would happen to me patched it but doesn’t seem to be holding pressure when it shakes the tire(?) (scary how fast the tread went away) before I could get it into a shop from being broke yay. inner tie rod is now shot so ordered that part.
Ah, rust free, looks good, are you taking about the rod on the pitman arm, that one is the expensive one being the long one, should not have to do it again for a long time, may want to replace them all.
While I have never had this problem on an E-Series, I have had a couple of F-Series where the death wobble was caused by an axle arm pivot bracket breaking or being loose.
The ones I see that are not 4 wheel drives have tires full of fix-a-flat
I should say "the last one I saw" had 1 front tire that was 1/2 full of 3 cans of fix-a-flat
That was a 1995 Taurus under warranty
The guys on the other team replaced half the car trying to fix it
Funny story fun stuff
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