Ball joint replacement problem?
Thread Starter
Swerve
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
Ball joint replacement problem?
Hello Everyone! New to the site and forums. I have received a lot of help from F150 forums in the past so I thought I would sign up and see if I could help anyone else....and perhaps receive more help
I am not much of a mechanic. I perform my own oil changes and filter changes. My past experience is only with rotors and brakes. So last weekend I thought I would tackle something a little more difficult and decided to change lower bj's, upper bj's and control arms, front strut assemblies and rear shocks on both sides. Rear shocks were easy and took me about 10 minutes per side. I had help with the front end and was able to complete the job in under 6 hours. It also saved me over $900 since I didn't have to pay a shop. So now to my main question. The equipment I bought at Advanced Auto. Moog ball joints and control arms and Monroe quick strut assemblies. I followed directions for the upper control arm and ball joint from the packaging, which explained to only tighten the castle nuts to expose the hole on the ball joint studs. Originally the nuts were loose on upper and lower ball joints. After a few phone calls, I went back (yesterday) and torqued the bj nuts to approx. 101 ft/lbs. However on the passenger side ball joint stud (upper), there seems to be a lot of the stud exposed. Or in other words, I had to tighten the castle nut quite a bit more than the driver side, which now the cotter pin does not even engage the castle nut because it is up too high on the bj stud. Is any of this making sense? This is my first post in a forum and now I think I’m starting to ramble. Anything specific that would cause this? Thanks in advance...
I am not much of a mechanic. I perform my own oil changes and filter changes. My past experience is only with rotors and brakes. So last weekend I thought I would tackle something a little more difficult and decided to change lower bj's, upper bj's and control arms, front strut assemblies and rear shocks on both sides. Rear shocks were easy and took me about 10 minutes per side. I had help with the front end and was able to complete the job in under 6 hours. It also saved me over $900 since I didn't have to pay a shop. So now to my main question. The equipment I bought at Advanced Auto. Moog ball joints and control arms and Monroe quick strut assemblies. I followed directions for the upper control arm and ball joint from the packaging, which explained to only tighten the castle nuts to expose the hole on the ball joint studs. Originally the nuts were loose on upper and lower ball joints. After a few phone calls, I went back (yesterday) and torqued the bj nuts to approx. 101 ft/lbs. However on the passenger side ball joint stud (upper), there seems to be a lot of the stud exposed. Or in other words, I had to tighten the castle nut quite a bit more than the driver side, which now the cotter pin does not even engage the castle nut because it is up too high on the bj stud. Is any of this making sense? This is my first post in a forum and now I think I’m starting to ramble. Anything specific that would cause this? Thanks in advance...
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 315
Likes: 19
Sounds to me like the shank of the ball joint is to small allowing it to go farther into steering knuckle. The taper of the ball joint must match taper of knuckle. Part could have been boxed wrong. Had that happen to me alot. But that's what I would check.
Thread Starter
Swerve
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
For a follow-up and what i did, here a link to the other forum i am on. http://www.f150online.com/forums/sea...archid=5374155