Tradesman

Greetings everyone. Been a while since I posted here. During my last trip to the dealership, my service advisor recommended replacing the lower ball joints as they have a bit of play. That was several months back and I've put on quite a bit of mileage since then. Lately the ride has been a bit squirrelly around the bumps and I was expecting the ball joints to be in rough shape. I decided to tackle this project on my own, after studying several guides from other forums and checking out videos. I paid less than $200 everything that I needed, which was a ball joint press and lower ball joints. What I was quoted was 4.5 hours of labour ($120/HR) and two ball joints at $110 each. Everything in with taxes was around $850, not including an alignment. So basically I saved around $650 which is more than what I make in two days of work.

I'm not going to explain all the tools you need to do this job on your own, all I can tell you is that you must have a ball joint press and you must have airtools! I can't imagine the poor fool that would try to attempt this with hand tools. It is possible, but you better have the strength of He-Man.Generally speaking you need all sorts of 1/2-inch drive metric impact sockets, both deep and shallow. You will need extensions and swivels and a damn good 1/2-inch impact. My Chicago Pneumatic impact puts out more torque than a 6.7 Powerstroke so I knew I had plenty.

I bought my lower ball joints from Rock Auto. They were $80 to my door. I chose this over Mevotech, AC Delco or Motorcraft because from my previous experience Moog has quality parts and these are greaseable.

As with everything else, jack your truck up safely and have it on jack stands. I only have 2-ton jack stands so I used four in total. My FX4 is stock height so I can only imagine the difficulty of trying to raise a lifted truck. My 12-ton bottle jack was barely tall enough to raise the wheels off the ground.

Remove the wheels. The lug nuts are 21mm. Remove the dust cap in the centre of the axle, and remove the 13mm nut that holds the CV shaft in place. Remove the caliper by zipping off the 13mm bolts that hold it to the caliper bracket. Then set it aside and hang it with wire or something. Never let it hang off the brake line! You can then zip off the caliper bracket which has 18mm bolts. Remove the brake rotor and remove the ABS sensor with a #5 Hex. Pull the vacuum lines that hook into the IWE ends push them aside. Then you can zip off the 21mm upper ball joint castle nut, 21mm outer tie rod end nut and 24mm lower ball joint castle nut. Take a BFH and hit the knuckle where the tie rod sits and where the upper ball joint sits and they should pop out. I wouldn't recommend a pickle fork because you'll wreck the rubber boots. I took a pickle fork to the lower ball joint since I was replacing it anyways and it popped right off. Be careful 'cause that knuckle is cast iron and it is f**king heavy! Contrary to what others say, you do not have to remove the CV shaft/axle! Just push it aside and you'll have plenty of room to use your ball joint press.

Now take your snap ring pliers, set them up for external rings and pop off that snap ring that holds the ball joint in place. Then take your press and line it up with the large receiving cup on the bottom with the receiving adapter plate on the bottom of the C-Clamp. Impact the s**t out of that and the ball joint will come right out. Now set up your press and line it up with the medium receiving cup on the bottom with the receiving adapter plate on the bottom of the C-Clamp. On the top of the C-Clamp you will set the receiving cup. Now zip that b***h up until it is full seated and you'll have replaced your ball joint! Be sure that you look very, very well throughout the upper portion of the ball joint to see that it is fully seated and then set your snap ring pliers to put a new snap ring in place. Pop on the grease fitting with a 3/8-inch wrench and put some high pressure synthetic grease in there. Now is a good time to grease your upper control arm ball joints as well. Put the knuckle back on, starting with the lower ball joint, CV shaft/axle, outer tie rod end and finally upper ball joint. Finger tighten everything until it is all lined up. Once it's lined up then you can torque everything down. Reinstall the ABS sensor and the vacuum lines for the IWE. Be sure to use antiseize on the caliper bracket bolts and caliper bolts before putting everything back together. You may have to push the pistons back into the calipers before reinstalling the calipers. If you do this, either open up the bleeder valve or remove the brake fluid filler cap. After you put everything back go for a test drive to make sure it's all good. You will also need an alignment.

I found out that my tie rod ends are also shot, so I'll be replacing them sometime soon. Then I'll get an alignment. There is a tremendous difference going over bumps now, it is nowhere near as squirrelly as before. I feel far more planted in the corners and the bumps don't disturb my steering as much. I must advise anyone out there that this is a very simple job. At first I was confused and wasn't too sure as I've never done lower ball joints using a press before. But this is a simple job and a great way to save money. Do it yourself, do a great job and save some money!

Tradesman

Here are my Moog lower ball joints and my ball joint press kit.


My driver-side front wheel removed and ready to tackle this project!


My knuckle has been removed and I'm ready to pop that lower ball joint off!


A pic of the front side of my knuckle.


A pic of the back side of my knuckle.


Gonna bust that sucker out!


A new Moog lower ball joint beside the original Motorcraft ball joint.


Got the new one in, put it all back together and go for a rip.

Brian's FX4

I just did this a couple months ago on my truck. Mine has a 4 inch lift. A regular floor jack works fine to jack her up. I don't have air tools...just a breaker bar for some of the parts, but each side took me 2.5 hours...just what the shop down the road told me it would take them. Of course, much cheaper!! I also changed my IWE actuators at the same time!! I got my 4x4 back AND a better ride!

Nothin' Fancy

This is a good write up!! I like the pics. I put on a 6in lift but never touched any of the Ball joints!

BassAckwards

Don't forget to torque your wheels back down at 150 Ft/Lbs.

Great write up OP now I'm thinking about taking some time off to do all of that, my tie rod ends, coolant flush, and change the spark plugs lol.

Especially since I rolled over 108k today!

04black150

very nice! I had to do this last year with my truck with my uncle last year! truck rides a hell of a lot better after replacing them/new tires/alignment!!

larryc251

Is the lower ball joints the ones that mess up with a leveling kit?
Just trying to figure out the which ones I need to replace.
My truck has been squeaking a lot and I've heard a few pops

graybeard_biker

be careful if you use cheap ball joints! A customer ordered a lower control arm with ball joint in place from Rock Auto, it was for a Lincoln Towncar, the ball joint snapped in half in under 2 weeks, the shaft snapped, luckily she was in a parking lot, but at speed who knows what would happen.

she said after she bought car, 2 years ago the lower balljoint had came loose & car dropped, & slid straight on hiway, another garage had replaced it, then many months later the new balljoint was coming loose from control arm, & was recomended to replace control arm, so it wouldnt come loose again, but they were tied up when part came in, so she brought it to shop I work at for us to install it.

I assume a cheap china ball joint? I didnt look at package other than to make sure it was same, and threw it away after it was installed, she ordered it herself from them to save money.

sglover

Nice write up, one thing to keep in mind is just rent the ball joint tool. I got one from autozone for 100 bux and got it back when I returned the tool. Not like you use it very often, unless your gonna do a couple buddys trucks also. I did mine with an electric impact and it struggled for sure. I did hubs, actuators, uppers and lowers, since i had it all apart.

I was a little concerned I had the wrong joints, like in your picture the new ones ar shorter, I was like no way but all fit just fine.
I agree with using Moog also.

Tradesman

I have a floor jack that'll raise up to 20 inches, but I leave it at home. I use a bottle jack with the truck in case of emergencies. My truck never came with the original lug wrench/scissor jack combo. Changing the IWE actuators and wheel hubs are easy if you can do this type of work. I can see why it took you over 2 hours per side. It took me less than 2 hours for the entire thing. I was quoted 4.5 hours of labour for installation.

The torque specs are as follows:

21mm Lug nuts 150ft-lbs
Outer tie rod end 85ft-lbs
Upper ball joint 85ft-lbs
Lower ball joint 110ft-lbs
13mm axle nut 20ft-lbs
18mm caliper bracket bolts 140ft-lbs
13mm caliper bolts 25ft-lbs

I'll be doing my outer tie rod ends shortly. I already ordered them from Rock Auto as well, and they are the Moogs with grease fittings. Sometime before summer I'll do the coolant flush. I'll be doing write ups for these procedures. As far as the spark plugs are concerned, I already did a post on that when I did it on my own. Special thanks to Kozal01 and Goldteam for their help on that one.