98 Explorer ball joints
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98 Explorer ball joints
Went to Napa today and bought the Upper Control Arms left, right, and the lower ball joints. Heres my question, the drivers side upper arms look the same, the pass. side does not, the upper arm on the pass. side has camber adjustment in the arm, the new one does not. Do i have the wrong part for the passenger side or did they change something. Heres the part numbers on the upper arms.
Napa
260-5122 left
260-5123 right
Napa
260-5122 left
260-5123 right
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The replacement upper contorl arm on the right side are single piece, not like the two piece original. Replaced both of the upper control arms on my 2000 Mountaineer. It took a while to convince myself that I had gotten the right part after seeing the difference between the original right side control arm and the replacement. After installing the arms, the truck was taken to a Mercury dealer for an alignment. The mechanic new it was the correct replacement and used regular routine for alignment which included a shim kit on the LEFT side. The new control arms have about 4k miles on them. The truck deffinately drives and rides better than before the repair. No more blasted squeaks either!
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I checked with several different auto parts stores all have the one piece design on the right side. Napa shows a part number for the ball joint side of the two piece, but not the bushing side of the arm, well thats what they told me. The two new arms are sealed bearings, the lower bearings has a grease fitting. really wanted all grease fittings.
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I think Moog makes upper ball joints with grease fittings. Go to the AutoQuest site. By the way, I mistakingly mentioned a shim kit in earlier post. I should have said cam kit. Those are the adjusting cams at the upper control arm-to-frame pivot points.
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got mine from rockauto
I got moog upper controll arms and lower ball joints for my 98 explorer from rockauto and am in the process of installing them.
all four ball joints had grease fittings.
The driver's side upper control arm ball joint didn't come with the urethane boot but the passenger side did. It seams absurd that I would have to purchase the boot as a separate piece and can't find anyone who caries it anyway. Has anyone else gotten the MOOG drivers side upper control arm? Did it come with the ball joint boot?
all four ball joints had grease fittings.
The driver's side upper control arm ball joint didn't come with the urethane boot but the passenger side did. It seams absurd that I would have to purchase the boot as a separate piece and can't find anyone who caries it anyway. Has anyone else gotten the MOOG drivers side upper control arm? Did it come with the ball joint boot?
Last edited by soahnk; Sep 20, 2005 at 11:48 PM.
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good thing i stumbled upon this post or i would be driving myself nutz from the differences between the two.
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Ball Joint to Boot!
I said before that I got a moog driver's side upper control arm from rockauto and that it did not come with the boot for the ball joint. I called rockauto and the clueless wonder told me that it wasn;t supposed to be included since it wasn't in the picture for that part number. I went ahead an odered another one of the same since I could not be lieve this was the case. Got the new one today and it had the little plastic bag insid with the instructions, boot, grease fitting and new pinch bolt that I expected. I will be returning the first one with a complaint about the missing parts, and inadequate knowledge of their customer service guy. Fortunately they pay for return shipping if it is their mistake.
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Hey Dillinger,
How'd you know you needed to replace those parts? I have a 98xlt 4x4 and have been hearing sorta a hard-to-isolate muffled "rattle" in the front suspension somwhere. It almost sounds like a wooden rattle since its so muffled.
I already replaced the shocks....but that did not change the sound...although it did improve the ride.
Anyways....just wondering if that's the symptom of needing new arms/ball joints.
Thanks
How'd you know you needed to replace those parts? I have a 98xlt 4x4 and have been hearing sorta a hard-to-isolate muffled "rattle" in the front suspension somwhere. It almost sounds like a wooden rattle since its so muffled.
I already replaced the shocks....but that did not change the sound...although it did improve the ride.
Anyways....just wondering if that's the symptom of needing new arms/ball joints.
Thanks
Last edited by kev100; Sep 22, 2005 at 12:55 PM.
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I had this squeaky noise from the front passenger side. It was caused by the dried out pass side upper ball joint, no grease fittings. All I did was to separate the two upper control arm halfs (it was a two piece original arm), pulled the boots up to expose the ball joint, cleaned it really good and regreased with synthetic grease. I was thinking of replacing it after I took it off, but decided to just grease it and saved a couple of hundred buck or so.
I think this upper ball joint is not load bearing. It had no play when I checked it. It just dried out and making a squeaky noise. I did this few months ago, everything is ok so far.
I think this upper ball joint is not load bearing. It had no play when I checked it. It just dried out and making a squeaky noise. I did this few months ago, everything is ok so far.
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If I remember correctly. Jack up the truck at the front cross member, remove wheel, put a jack stand under the lower control arm, lower the jack a little so the weight is on the jack stand. I removed the mud flap to get more room. Now, remove the two nuts that attach the two upper control arm together, don't touch the adjuestment bolt on the side of the arm. The ball joint half of the arm is now free, you can carefully pry the rubber boot up and start cleaning and regreasing it.
I hope this helps.
By the way, I have a 95 xl 4x4.
I hope this helps.
By the way, I have a 95 xl 4x4.
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The upper ball joint on my 99 was squeaking and didn't seem to be loose, so I drilled a small hole in the upper side(drilled straight down) and installed a grease fitting and now I grease it every so often. Passenger side seems ok.
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That seems like a good idea to do the driver side, since it is only a one piece upper control arm. A lot more work required to take that out to grease it.
I'll keep that in mind when the driver side uppper ball joint starts squeaking on me.
I'll keep that in mind when the driver side uppper ball joint starts squeaking on me.
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