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Jay,
Glad to see you got it back together. Wish I could have stayed all day. Dale it was nice meeting you. Mike and Dale are extremely knowledgable and its nice to know they are willing to help out. Reps to both of you. I want to thank all three of you for taking my truck for a spin with the two chips and sharing the differences you could see. Thanks
Well, we did the ball joints yesterday and all I can say is I am glad I had a couple guys there that knew what they were doing. I would have been SOL on my own. First I have to give Ed a little crap. Whats the deal sending me warped seals and ball joints with missing or incorrect parts huh? lol Just razzing ya buddy!
The Hub seal was a beotch not having the correct seal driver but we finally got it on. The lower joint worked fine but you need to reuse your old nut and retainer clip because they did not come with the ball joint.
The upper included a new nut, cotter key, and grease zerc but the grease zerc does not fit. The axle u-joint hits so I need to find a lower profile one. Whats up with that Ed!?
All in all not technically a difficult job but a few specialized tools are a must. You must have the following on hand:
A 1 5/16 open end wrench for the nut on the bottom ball joint
A ball joint press
One heck of a powerful impact wrench or a good press
A hub seal driver
A person or two that have done this before is a bonus for sure.
A special thanks go out to Mike (Ford79) for the use of his tools, garage and his know how, and for providing lunch and beverages. Also thanks to Dale (Excursion4X4) for his help and experience. And Tom (MNDiesel) for his moral support and running me around for parts, tools and food.
It was a great day with some great guys! I only got a few pictures that I will add tonight when I get home.
Originally Posted by mndiesel
Jay,
Glad to see you got it back together. Wish I could have stayed all day. Dale it was nice meeting you. Mike and Dale are extremely knowledgable and its nice to know they are willing to help out. Reps to both of you. I want to thank all three of you for taking my truck for a spin with the two chips and sharing the differences you could see. Thanks
Originally Posted by Excursion4X4
Tom,
I was glad to meet you, Mike and Jay! I had a great time helping and B.S.ing!!! I think I will be PMing you later this week.
It was a pleasure having you guys up Sunday. Just wish my "shop" had been a little better equipped. Oh well, we made do with what we had, got the job done and that's what counts.
Jay, it was great to meet you.
Tom, great to see you again and hopefully we'll get some time to look into your truck a little more soon.
Dale, it was great to meet you too.
Had a Firestone service center do a lineup a few years back, no problems so I paid extra for the life time lineup service. About 6 months ago I go to a different Firestone dealer to check the lineup, they chain the frame down and jack the member up, put a 4' pry bar under the tire and get about 1/8" movement, sorry can't do your "life time lineup" unless you have us replace the ball joints ($600+).
I call Ford, they say the test was done improperly and that amount of movement was acceptable anyway!?
Have 135K on truck, no tire wear issues, no handling problems.