Well, had the truck up in the air this weekend and see that I have a broken front swaybar mount, a bad lower ball joint- both on the passenger side, and slight play in the steering that seems to be coming from the idler arm.

I searched the forum for ball joints and found some good scope and have a few questions:

It seems you may not have to remove the torsion bar and lower control arm to replace the lower ball joint, that is if you are lucky enough to be able to remove the ball joint with those C-Clamp ball joint presses, correct? How safe is this, seems that you'd want to have that lower control arm blocked/secured pretty good since its got all the force of the torsion bar on it, plus whatever muscle and hammering it takes to get the ball joint out.

Next, should I just replace the one lower that is bad, replace both the upper and lower on that side, or replace both sides upper and lower. The driver's side seems to be fine and has no movement/play. Seems MOOG is the perfered choice, does Ford carry just the lower ball joints, or only the whole lower arm assebly.

How much of a bear are the ball joints to get out? On my G-Body the shop had to heat the arm with a torch and put it in their BIG press. If its a 50/50 shot that one of those C-clamp presses would work, I might just bite the bullet and pull the torsion bar.

Do the new lower ball joints need to be pressed in, or does the weight of the vehicle and tightening down the nut seat them?

thanks

 

If you have a good c-clamp removal tool it is no problem to replace the lower ball joint without removing the lower control arm. The lower control arm does not need to be supported to remove the lower control arm as the shock will act as a stop if needed. The lowers usually wear out much faster than the uppers so if the upper looks ok I would not worry about it. I have never not been able to remove the ball joint using the press, so I would not worry about that. The lower does need to be pressed in using the same tool.

 

Thanks for the good scoop.

 

I don't know if the Expy is similar to the Explorer, but if they are you're going to have to beat the lower ball joint out(once the big C clip is removed) with a 3lb maul. That's because the press(big heavy duty C clamp) won't fit on the undeside of the control arm. The arm is curved and the lip of the arm is so close to the ball joint that the sleeve won't fit. Once you beat the old ball joint out(lower control arm is being supported with a floor jack) you can use the tool to press the new ball joint in since the upper surface of the control arm is flat and there is enough room for the sleeve.

 

I bought the C-clamp style removal tool from HF, and actually spread the clamp trying to press a ball joint out with the control arm still on the vehicle. Of course, when the clamp spread, I had resorted to a 24" breaker bar with a 4' pipe cheater. After that, I gave up, removed the torsion bar and the lower control arm, and pressed the joint out with a shop press.

If you decide to go this route, be extremely careful removing the torsion bar. You have to compress (rotate) the bar with a clamp in order to remove a stop block. There is some serious tension here, and will take off fingers in a heartbeat if not done carefully. Make sure you count the number of turns when removing the adjuster bolt. This sets the ride height, so you'll want to tighten back the same number of turns when you put the torsion bar back.

As for replacing both uppers and lowers, I have always done this job in pairs. All these parts have been on the vehicle for the same amount of time. If one has failed, the other can't be far behind. While you're into it, it's logical (for me anyway) to replace both. In fact, when any one of these suspension parts fail, I always replace both sides of the vehicle.

Moog is my choice, particularly since the joints have zerk fittings for greasing. Also, Moog offers upper arms with replaceable joints, so the next time a joint replacement is required, you only have to press the old joint out, rather than replace the whole arm assembly.

 

Well, got my ball joint project finished. Wow, what a joy! Truck hardly put up a fight taking it apart (of course I had the rotors off about a 1.5 years ago so they weren't frozen on too bad). Left the torsion bar installed and put a jackstand under the a-arm as described in a previous post. I think it acutally took me longer to figure out what adapters to use with the ball joint press I loaned from the parts store then it did to press the ball joint out. The biggest two pains on the job were the $25 ford soaked me for for the inner (knuckle) seal, and $32 for the swaybar link- getting the old link out was a pain two as the plastic spacer had rusted to the stud.

I came close to replacing the upper control arm and the DS ball joints, but figured if it comes apart this easy, I'll just wait till they go bad.

 

How long did it take you to replace the ball joints? I had it done and it costed about $350 just to do the lowers, they where replaced with Moog.
This was done on my 2000 Expedition 4x4.
~Gage~

 

Start to finish- hmmm, maybe 3 nights @ 2hrs a night. That includes trips to the parts store for the loaner tools, cleaning and painting the knuckle and dust shield, cleaning up and anti seizing all the bolts, pulling apart the old ball joint to see what it looked like, and cleaning and putting away my tools each night. I think the ball joint, seal, and sway bar link cost me a little around $115.

 

$400 @ Firestone, Moog parts, lifetime warranty; already have lifetime front end alignment, and drive with Bridgestone tires, & lifetime brakes - I used to like to do things myself, but no more - Firestone makes it simple

 

If it's 4X4 it will take longer as there are more parts to remove. If it's 2wrd it's only a couple of hours. The problem with the ball joint remover is that the design of the Ford lower arm won't allow you to mount the tools squarely to the arm. This isn't a problem when installing the new ball joint once the old one has been beat out. You must support the vehicle securely with jack stands and then raise the arm and support it too during the beating process. It's safer to use a jack stand under the arm, but I guess the floor jack would work. Once you have the arm supported you remove the large circlip. Then you start beating on the flat upper face of the ball joint. It can be spayed with lubricant first to make it easier. It isn't nearly as bad as it seems. The ball joint is splined so once it starts to move as you beat on it the ball will come right out. Just remember that there is an index mark on the new ball joint that MUST be properly positioned. I don't know how important this step is, but I always put the index mark pointing inward as instructed. Don't forget to install the new zerk fitting and add some grease. I would allow 1 hour per side and more if 4X4.

 

The ball joint press kit the local parts store loaned me had a bazzilion adapters- prolly why it took me so long to figure out how to use it, but I was able to find a couple of adapters that worked perfect.

Indexing....hmmmm don't remember seeing anything about this, but I used an OEM sealed ball joint so maybe the indexing doesn't apply?

 

I use Moog which has a zerk fitting and also has the index mark. The OEMs may not have the index mark or a zerk fitting. The thing with the Explorer lower control arm is that it is curved downward at the outer edge. The lip where the arm curves downward is so close to the ball joint that the adapter sleeve won't fit between the lip of the arm and the ball joint itself without getting wedged in there and even if you could get it in there it wouldn't sit flush because of the way the arm is curved. The curve make the adapter sleeve sit cockeyed on the lower surface of the arm. This makes it impossible to get the "C" clamp tool to mount flush to the adapter sleeve. That's why I beat them out. If your tool had a "special" adapter for this Ford arm I'd like to see what it looks like. Most loaner tools are very universal so that they cover "most" applications rather than some oddball special application like the Ford Explorer. You don't have this problem when installing the new ball joint because the adapter sleeve for the tool sits on the top of the arm during installation which is a flat level surface. You only have a problem during removal.

 

Good information. I need to replace ball joints. Not sure if its the upper or lower but the creaking sound seems to come from the upper ball joint as the air suspension lowers the truck. Any suggestions on how to go about removing and installing the upper ball joints. I plan to use the Moog ball joints and arm. Any info will help.

Thanks

 

As I recall, the factory uppers aren't replaceable in the factory control arm. So, you get to buy new controls arms and ball joints. If you buy Moog (can't speak for other manufacturers), then the next time you have to replace ball joints, you can re-use the arm.

Uppers on my 4WD Expy were no where near the pain the lowers were. Just remove the cotter key and the castle nut, give the arm a whack with a hammer and it pops right off. Probably harder to get at and remove the control arm bolts than anything else.

You'll need an alignment afterwards. Good luck.

 

When I did my 97, did it all at once @ 133K, upper and lower ball joints , outer tie rod ends and pitman arm, then took for a good alignment. Once and done no more hassles