ball joints or control arm?
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New User
Joined: Jan 2007
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ball joints or control arm?
I have a 1998 ranger 6 cyl. I do brakes, and misc small work to save money. I need to replace my ball joints but have a question. Autozone.com sez 1998-99 rangers have tortion bars and need to replace upper and lower control arm. Based on the pictures in Autozone.com, my ranger looks like it is a hybrid of a torsion bar and springs. Its has all the upper and lower control arms like in the picture but, it also has a large spring inside the frame with the shock(strut?) inside the spring. The pictures in autozone for spring suspension show spring with the shock(strut) behind it, not inside it.. The tortion bar picture in autozone.com which is supposed to be mine(98-99), has no spring, just shock? I am a nube but feel am mechanically inclined enough to do it. Any help? Thanks in advance.
Elder User
Joined: Sep 2006
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Four wheel drive rangers in that year had torsion bars, and NO coil springs.
Two wheel drive rangers could haver had torsion bars or coil springs but not both.
Yours is a coil spring model. You need to replace the upper control arms (as the upper ball joints are part of the assembly), but the LOWER ball joints can be serviced separate from the control arm (they are pressed in).
Hope this answers your questions. Good luck
Two wheel drive rangers could haver had torsion bars or coil springs but not both.
Yours is a coil spring model. You need to replace the upper control arms (as the upper ball joints are part of the assembly), but the LOWER ball joints can be serviced separate from the control arm (they are pressed in).
Hope this answers your questions. Good luck
Senior User
Joined: Feb 2005
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From: Red Wing, MN
Originally Posted by MazdaRangerGuyInSTL
Yours is a coil spring model. You need to replace the upper control arms (as the upper ball joints are part of the assembly), but the LOWER ball joints can be serviced separate from the control arm (they are pressed in).
Greg
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Ball joints
I have a ‘99 2WD Ranger, it has coil springs as the previous poster said. I just recently replaced the ball joints. It was not that bad of a job. I bought the parts from AutoZone, I think the uppers were about $20 ea and the lowers $40ea. It’s probably a good idea to replace all at the same time. I removed the upper control arms and used a press to remove/install the ball joints. The lower can be done on the vehicle with a ball joint press (looks like a big C clamp).
While I had everything apart I turned the rotors and replaced the pads and cleaned and repacked the wheel bearings.Good luck.
While I had everything apart I turned the rotors and replaced the pads and cleaned and repacked the wheel bearings.Good luck.
