shocksystems

Do I need to replace the whole lower control arm in order to replace the lower ball joints on a 2004 F-150 4WD? If not is there any special tool I will need to pull the lower ball joint? Is a pickle fork enough?

Thanks in advance - Jim

sds5150

A pickle fork will seperate the top portion of the joint, but to get to bottom out you will need a press. It is basically a custom C-clamp. Normally you can borrow them for free (with a deposit) where you bought the parts. (Autozone for example, lets you borrow all kinds of tools if you buy the parts there.)

shocksystems

I replaced the upper and lower ball joints on my truck this weekend. It is a 2004 F-150, 4WD.

As someone suggested here, I determined that it was not practical to replace just the top ball joints. Instead you have to replace the upper control arms with the ball joints.

I decided to order Moog replacement parts, based on recommendations of others. One neat thing is that the Moog parts do come with grease fittings. These are the Moog part numbers I ordered from rockauto.com:

• MOOG K80308 Control Arm
• MOOG K80306 Control Arm (There is a different control arm for each side)
• MMOG K80149 Ball Joint - 2 of these. They are the same for both sides (bottom)

The manual I read (alldatadiy.com) recommended that I use the following three tools:

1. Pitman arm puller
2. C Frame screw style ball joint press
3. Receiver cup to fit

From what I could tell the 2004 and newer F150 trucks require a special receiver cup. After some research I purchased the following tools from tooltopia.com because I have not started my collection of ball joint tools yet.

1. OTC (OTC7825) Ford Ball Joint Remover
   • Part#: OTC7825
   • Manufacturer Part#: OTC7825 OTC7825 OTC-7825
2. OTC (OTC7311A) Pitman Arm Puller (Passenger Cars and Light Trucks to 3/4 ton)
   • Part#: OTC7311A
   • Manufacturer Part#: OTC7311A OTC7311A OTC-7311A
3. OTC (OTC7249) Ball Joint Installer / Remover
   • Part#: OTC7249
   • Manufacturer Part#: OTC7249 OTC7249 OTC-7249

Everything arrived in good shape and on time. Here are the highlights of things I encountered during the job.


I was impressed with the quality of all of the tools, however there were some challenges.

• The Pitman arm puller worked great but did not expand quite wide enough to pull the lower ball joint from the steering knuckle. The long bolts with the wing nuts were a hair too short. I replaced the bolts with ones slightly longer (temporarily) and it worked (crisis averted).

• When you press the lower ball joint into the lower control arm you need to push it up high enough that you can place the snap ring around the top. This means that you must press it so the top of it sticks out from the top of the control arm. The ball joint installer I purchased above does not "expect this". I ended up purchasing a 2 inch pipe cap from Lowes that looked kind of like this:
  

By using this cap under the screw end of the clamp instead of one of the plates supplied with the tool I was able to drive the ball joint up far enough.


The job went smoothly, beyond the issues above, once I figured out everything that needed to come out. And lots of things needed to come out. I had to remove the whole spring/shock assembly to get at the control arm bolts. I also had to remove the back plate behind the caliper to be able to use the arm puller on one of the ball joints. I had to remove the hub nut and completely remove the steering knuckle. Side 2 went much faster once I had all of this down.

Hopefully this helps someone else in the future.

Cheers!

Jim