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Lower Ball Joint Replacement on 4WD 2004-

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Old 08-27-2011, 06:37 PM
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Default Lower Ball Joint Replacement on 4WD 2004-

In order to pass state inspections, I recently had to replace the lower ball joints on my 2004 XLT Super Cab at 190K miles. All the other suspension and steering components on the front end are original and still serviceable. My hub bearing assemblies were also still good.

I sprayed all the parts to be disassembled with penetrating oil a couple of days before starting the work.

While I had things apart, I also took the opportunity to flush, clean, and lube the front brakes. I reassembled all suspension and steering component fasteners with antiseize and the halfshaft to differential flange bolts with Medium (blue) Loctite.

Here are some step by step guidelines and just a few photos.

Tools:

½ Drive Torque Wrench up to 150 ft.-lbs.
Ball Joint Press (OEM 27023)
Ford Ball Joint Adapter Set (27163)
Breaker Bar (& leverage pipe)
9 mm combination wrench or socket
10 mm combination wrench or socket
12 mm 12 point socket
13 mm socket
13 mm socket
18 mm socket
22 mm socket (Moog Lower BJ uses 22mm nut)
21 mm deep socket
24 mm deep socket
Various Socket Extensions
Pry Bar
External Snap Ring Pliers
3 lb sledge hammer
Good Quality All-Purpose Grease
Antiseize
Brake Cleaner
Penetrating Oil

Torque Values:
Halfshaft to differential to Differential Flange Bolts: 60 ft.-lbs.
Tie Rod: 85 ft.-lbs.
Upper Ball Joint: 85 ft.-lbs.
Lower Ball Joint: 95 - 111 ft.-lbs.
Axle Nut: 20 ft.-lbs.
Brake Bracket Bolts: 146 ft-lbs.
Caliper Pin Bolts: 22 ft.-lbs.

Removal:
1)Engage the emergency brake and chock the rear wheels. Jack up the front side with the wheel barely touching the ground and break the lug nuts loose. If you don’t have access to a lift, raise the corresponding corner, support with jack stand(s) and remove lug nuts and wheel.

2) Remove brake caliper and hang it onto the upper control arm. Unclip ABS wire from brake hose. Remove brake caliper bracket. Clean and lube slide pins and bores, and all contact points. Brake drag can drastically decrease fuel efficiency. Compress caliper pistons with c-clap or caliper tool set -- I do this to verify that the pistons aren't sticking and to ease installation. Open the bleeder valve while doing this to avoid pushing old fluid back through the system. My rotors are in really rough shape so I also cleaned them up with a paint stripping wheel.

3) Remove ABS sensor (5mm hex) by twisting back and forth and pulling out. Remove hub disconnect vacuum lines.

4) Break loose upper ball joint nut (21 mm).

5) Break loose lower ball joint nut (24 mm).

6) Remove the axle nut dust cap by tapping a small screwdriver around the circumference. The idea here is to wedge the screwdriver around it rather than prying up in order to avoid damaging the cap. Once removed, break loose the axle nut (13mm).

7) Break loose and remove tie rod nut. Then thread nut back on until finger tight. The key is to avoid engaging the plastic part of the self locking nut.

8) Give the front side of the knuckle a few wraps with the 3-lb. hammer until the tie rod end drops out of the knuckle. Each blow should be parallel with the length of the truck in order to avoid potential damage to the knuckle. Tie the tie rod up away from the knuckle – I used the front upper control arm bolt.

* I rarely use a pickle fork because I find that shocking a joint with a few whacks of the hammer works better. Also, I didn’t need to replace the upper ball joints, and a pickle fork would have trashed the rubber boots.

9) Repeat the same procedure to remove the upper ball joint. Strike the upper control arm at an angle perpendicular to the length of the car until the conical stud pops out. Then pull the control arm upward and remove the nut.

10) Remove 6 bolts that hold inner CV joint to the front differential (12 mm 12 point socket, preferably ½”drive). I didn’t have one of these in my tool box and thought I’d have to look everywhere to find one. As it turned out, Lowe’s had just what I needed. I used an electric impact gun with some extensions and found it easiest to go in behind the strut tower rotating the axle as I loosen each bolt.

The factory thread lock along with the corroded tips that protrude through the mounting flange make them a bear to break loose. Penetrating oil is your friend here, especially on the differential side of the flange. If you don’t have an impact gun, you can thread a couple of the lug nuts onto opposite studs and brace it with a pry bar between them on one end and the other end against the ground while you turn the bolts by hand. You can also access them from below the car if you don’t have the appropriate extensions.

11) Repeat as in step 9 to release the knuckle from the lower ball joint. Striking point is at the top of the knuckle (you’ll see a raised tab, which can serve as your bull’s eye). This one will be very stubborn, and you’ll want to rotate the knuckle toward you in order to maximize the downward force of each hammer blow. When it happens, the whole knuckle will drop down.

12) Remove the axle nut, and slide the axle out of the hub. To do this, rotate the knuckle toward you with one hand and pull the halfshaft out of the hub with your other hand. Be careful not to damage the inner hub seal or polished surfaces of the outer CV joint.

13) Now lift up the knuckle and remove the nut, and the knuckle will drop out. Be careful, it’s very heavy.

14) Remove snap ring and using a wire brush, clean around the top of the ball joint where it meets the lower control arm. Spray some penetrating oil around the top of the ball joint for ease of removal.

15) Connect the ball joint press as shown in the 3rd photo below and push the ball joint out of the lower control arm. You’ll have to really crank on the press until you hear it start to pop out. Try to line up the forcing screw of the press along the axis of the ball joint. Normally with cast iron assemblies on solid axles, a few whacks with the hammer can shock the housing, freeing the ball joint, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that on the aluminum lower control arm.

16) Install the new ball joint. I used the regular adapters to get it started and then finished the installation with the special Ford receiver cup, but a large socket would also work. My new Moog ball joints came with 90-degree grease fittings, which should face toward either the front or the rear in order to ease future greasing.


Reassembly:
1) Clean out the old grease with clean rags and lube the seals and hub a good quality all purpose grease. I used Mobil 1 red grease because it’s available almost anywhere. Avoid over greasing as this can cause the hub to overheat and/or grease to blow out the seals.

2) Clean and lube the outer CV joint splines, threads, and polished surfaces.

3) After reinstalling the knuckle to the lower ball joint stud (again, just a few turns on the nut to hold the knuckle in place), slip the outer cv joint into the hub assembly and install the 13 mm nut until axle starts to turn inside the hub. Be careful not to damage the polished surfaces of the cv joint or the inner hub seal as you do this. You can torque this to spec at the end.

4) Tighten the lower ball joint until it bottoms out.

5) Reinstall the halfshaft flange to the differential flange and sequentially torque the 12mm bolts in a star pattern up to 60 ft.-lbs. I used medium Loctite on these bolts.

6) Install the upper ball joint stud into the knuckle, and pull down on the control arm in order to engage the threads with the nut.

7) Install the tie rod and turn the nut until it bottoms out, but do not torque it down at this point. You'll need an adjustable wrench and a 10 mm wrench or socket to prevent the stud from rotating while you do this. It's actually easier to hold the nut and turn the stud itself.

8) Torque lower ball joint to 40 ft.-lbs.

9) Torque upper ball joint to 85 ft.-lbs. Use the same procedure as in step #7, but you'll need a 9mm combination wrench or socket.

10) Torque lower ball joint to 95 – 111 ft.-lbs, keeping an to line up the eye of the stud with one of the slots on the nut. Install cotter pin. (Moog ball joints use 22mm nuts with cotter pins. OEM BJs use 24mm self-locking nuts.)

11) Torque tie rod self-locking nut to 85 ft.-lbs.

12) Install ABS Sensor & vacuum lines.

13) Install the brake rotor

14) Install caliper brackets and torque bolts to 148 ft.-lbs. Slide the pads onto the bracket, then install the caliper and torque the bolts to 22 ft.lbs.

15) Finally, torque the 13mm axle nut to 20 ft.-lbs. and tap the dust cap back on. Gently tap only around the outer edges with a plastic hammer to avoid damaging the cap.

16) Reinstall wheel and tighten lug nuts to 150 ft.-lbs. Start the car and pump the brake pedal until firm in order to seat the front brake pads, and take the car for a test drive.
Attached Thumbnails Lower Ball Joint Replacement on 4WD 2004--dsc09533-large-.jpg   Lower Ball Joint Replacement on 4WD 2004--dsc09535-large-.jpg   Lower Ball Joint Replacement on 4WD 2004--dsc09536-large-.jpg  
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Last edited by Mr.Philadelphia; 08-29-2011 at 11:15 AM. Reason: clarity
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Blueleader (08-01-2013), Oldrice (09-19-2012), Unlimited HP (11-21-2016)
Old 04-11-2012, 06:41 PM
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Sir, I cannot thank you enough. I'm going to do my entire front end this weekend - HBS 2.5" leveling kit, lower ball joints, sway links and assorted bushings, rebuild steering rack and steering pump. Knowing what's ahead of me makes it so much easier. I've purchased all the stuff like sockets and assembly lube and stuff I didn't have. SOME major leaks on the front end somewhere (steering and engine) are coating the entire drivers side underneath with a heavy coat of oils as well as my driveway and I have committed to fixing all this in the coming weekend.

Then I have to focus on the strange new noises in my tired engine.

Oldrice-
Old 04-12-2012, 09:50 AM
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Good luck this weekend. I hope your leakage issue is something simple like a clogged PCV valve or valve cover gaskets.

Off topic here but I was looking at your webpage, and I must say that I really miss my old Hawk as well. The GSF400, CB-1, and the Hawk really kicked off the a trend for which the US market was not yet ready. I'm sure I'll find another one at some point, but I've got my sights on a Speed Triple ...
Old 04-16-2012, 09:49 PM
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OK - Things don't always go as planned and I thought I was prepared.

I began Friday night after work taking stuff off and jacking up the truck, beer, jackstands, fan shroud, beer, fan, have wife pick up the rented tools like the one to take the fan off, the ball joint press and the steering pump pulley kit, then more beer and talk a lot about how smoooooth this is going to go the next day.

Got up early and kicked the day off right with my best friend Nelson to get Starbucks "Vente Americano w/2 Splendas" and some sausage-egg-cheese bagels from McDonalds.

Got the fan off. Those are fun because you have to remove the fan AND the shroud at the same time. And the shroud doesn't come out very easily. I climb under the truck and begin the search for the oil leak. Nels is steering back and forth while I watch what's going on and I have an AHA! moment when I see the rapid dripping from the high pressure line at the fitting to the pump. Pull pulley, fight with the fitting for a couple HOURS to get it off. (because I tried to get it off with the pulley still on). Send wife to get new high pressure line. . . remove wheels and dive into the front end. I have two new sway links (finally got the right ones - there's three completely different sets for an 04+ btw) to install, two lower ball joints and my HBS 2.5" donuts to install. Straightforward enough.

Getting the sway links off was not easy - you see, here in Michigan we use a lot of salt in the winter. This is not good at all for exposed threads on the underside of your truck. We had to cut the pass side sway link off with a saws-all (easy 3 hour delay) and I broke off the zirk fitting in a ball joint because I'm a ham-fisted knuckle-dragging mouth breathing mono-browed baffoon and caused another two hour delay (at least) trying easy-outs, drilling, tapping, sucking out the shavings, cussing and whatever else it takes to get passed this and once we got all the ball joints in, sway links in, HBS 2.5" Leveling donuts in and everything greased and lubed and wheels back on (it's midnight Sat now) I send Nels home and dive into the install of the steering hose. Fun. One end won't quite fit. Filing, prying, cussing, drilling (into my thumbnail with a half inch dia drill) and cussing loudly some more I finally get it on. Hoo-freaking-raw.

The next day was slow to begin. You see, I'm 48 going on 88 and I tend to get up way before my body does after wrestling an F150 for roughly 18 hours straight the day before so, well, it hurt.

I have to say, once everything is on and you're ready to put the wheels back on, it's a tad scary. The suspension is so relaxed with the 2.5" donuts in that the upper control arms are sagging so bad they actually rest on the strut springs. I'm like WTF??? but once you put the new heavy 33" BFGs on and lower the truck everything comes back into spec again.

Rides great. Had the alignment done today and it was only off a tad on the pass side and they straightened my steering wheel again. $50 and an hour later I was sailing down the road again! ...trailing a dripping oil stream from the steering system somewhere. . . apparently that hose wasn't it.

We'll try again next weekend.

Oldrice
Wishing I had my old Hawk again too. Grrrrrrr.....
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Old 07-11-2012, 05:27 AM
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Great Write up!
Old 09-04-2016, 02:50 PM
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So, I replaced my lowers and uppers yesterday, based on this write up and it worked great! However, my moog lower ball joints did not seat entirely. They are tapered and I understand the mechanics and design of a tapered joint. I did torque to the recommended ft-lbs, locked the castle nut with the cotter pin afterwards, did a road and everything is tip top. Is there a problem if the strut tower does not entirely seat on the ball joint?
Old 09-18-2016, 10:58 AM
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I thought the same thing when I was putting the new design Moog ball joint in. Actually hung me up for several hours while I tried to figure it out. Since the new design Moog does not have a the rubber grease cup, it looks like it does not fit all the way onto the steering knuckle (you see what you think is a gap), but after measuring with calipers with old ball joint and new, they are spot on. If your old ball joints did not have the rubber cap, you would see the gap.....Hope that helps
Old 09-21-2016, 07:49 AM
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Does that ball joint set work for a 07 sxrew 5.4 4x2? was thinking about getting the complete set a harbor freight so i can do my other vehicles. Just not sure if it has the right cups
Old 09-22-2016, 09:35 AM
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The problem with the HF kits is the press. They tend to bend or crack under intense pressure. To use them, you really have to coax it. Turning the screw press bolt and then shocking the bolt with a hammer to relieve the tension. With the aluminum control arm, you can also heat the aluminum around joint, which helps to break any corrosion as the aluminum expands.

I buy a decent set or just borrow a set from a nearby parts supplier. I borrowed a set from Autozone.
Old 09-23-2016, 07:48 PM
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I used the HF press kit and it worked like a champ. I greased the ram screw pretty good and did not use a impact wrench on it. Just put a long pipe on the handle of my breaker bar and pressed them out. pressed out pretty smooth and installed them with out any issues. The press is pretty beefy, but i erred on the side of caution and stayed away from the impact gun. The kit had everything I needed to do my 04 FX4.


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