Took my 95 Aerostar AWD w/176,000 miles in for front end alignment and was told lower ball joints are shot and they can not align it. I had a few questions i was hoping someone can answer. Thanks in advance and Happy Holidays!

1. How difficult are they to change, can I do them myself?
2. If I can do them myself does anyone have any helpful advice as to make the job easier?
3. Will I need a pickle-fork to seperate them?
4. JC Whitney advertises them for $19.99, is the best price anyone has heard of?
2. Is there a diffrence in AWD and RWD lower ball joints.
3. The shop wants $100-150 to install both lower, is this a good deal or not?

 

The lower control arms are different between the rwd and awd models, so I would expect that the ball joints would be different as well. You should check with the parts stores carefully to be sure.

It is not necessary to use a pickle fork to separate ball joints. You can loosen the nut but leave it threaded on the stud and strike the top of the stud (as squarely as possible) to separate it. You can also strike the side of the spindle where the stud goes through to shock it loose, but still leave the nut on it losely to keep the spring from popping out.

After that, I think the ball joint is pressed into the lower control arm, and you will need to use some pretty big arbors or drifts to press it out without damaging the control arm. This is why Ford prefers to sell you the whole control arm, rather than just the ball joints. The control arms probably cost about $150 each.

 

I removed my lower control arms, cause I wanted to replace the springs anyway, and I wonder if it would just be easier to remove them anyway.. there are Two thru bolts in each side, I think they were 13/16 but not sure.. the bolts come out pretty easy, the nuts have retainers on them and you don't even have to hold the nuts, just take a big breakerbar/ratchet and while holding the a-arm with a floor jack, remove the bolts and of course, the ball joint nut after you removed the cotter pin and nut. Pounding with a big hammer on the spot where the ball joint stud goes thru the axle housing is my preferred method for getting it loose..just keep smacking it hard ..it will come loose without a pickle fork!! or if you want..use the pickle fork, I just like hitting things lol..I never use a pickle fork!! one thing, dont pull out on the axle reallt far or a worn CV joint may separate internally.. not a good thing to do.. On the workbench, I removed the snap ring from the ball joint and pounded with a hammer..the joint comes right out. The new one goes in using a big socket or spacer to pound on. The springs by the way, are easy to deal with this way since you are relieving all the tension.. they really dont get much longer when you remove the a-arms. I had to play around with the floor jack and used a small piece of 2x6 on the jack and a line-up punch in the holes but the second one took me like 5 minutes to replace it all. i'm sorry if this sounds too easy but I used 2 floor jacks and jack stands to get it up off the ground to work with!! have fun!! ooh yeah.. you get what you pay for so I'd beware of the cheepest ball joints.. go with moog lifetime ones.. they might be 10 buck more but do you really want to do this again in 6 months????
ooh one last thing.. I wqouldnt completely tighten the a-arm thru bolts till the thing is down on the ground.. this sets the rubber bushings in the proper place.

 

thanks for the information especially on the moog lifetime joints. The procedure you described, is this for a AWD. As I have read that there are retainer clips and the joints are riveted in. Isthis correct or I am I just a confused wrench turner?

 

THe upper ball joints are riveted to the control arms. I think the lower joint is as Tomaconda described.

 

Correct, the lowers are press in/snap ring and the uppers are rivited unless they have been replaced, then they have bolts. On the uppers or on any rivited replaceable item, I use my air hammer with a sharp chisel and the heads come right off then I use the "BEAT TILL IT COMES OFF" method