Just finished doing the upper & lower ball joints as well as the front axle u-joints in our '02 & did some research before starting the project. Wanted to find greaseable upper & lower joints, but, alas, they don't appear to exist in a quality product. Called our local part stores, aka, NAPA & Carquest & found that neither carried both U & L in a greaseable form. Used to do front-end work, so I thought there had to be someone who'd know of a manufacturer who did make 'em & exhausted those resources as well. Got busy & called different shops that build custom heavy duty axles w/o success as well.
Finally called both the guys at Boyce Equipment in Ogden, UT & Dynatrac in Huntington Beach who specialize in very HD axles (Boyce does Dana 44s front axles like the old Chevy's/Fords/Dodge used up to 5 ton Rockwells. Dynatrac does custom Dana based axles from 44s thru 80s). Talked to one of the guys in the Dynatrac shop & he said that, yes, McQuay-Norris did make a greaseable upper & lower joints for our Dana 60F axle, but that DynaTrac had discontinued using those joints due to problems lately w/ the quality control regarding the outside diameter of the ball joint. Some would be 3 to 5/1000ths too large & would stretch the press fit hole to the point that a proper sized joint would be too loose later. Others would be too small to achieve a good press fit to remain in place. So the McQuay-Norris joints were out. Both shops said they'd been using the NAPA ball joints w/ good success from both a reliability stand point & a QC standpoint.
Then called my NAPA store & ordered two 260-1547 upper ball joints & two 260-1548 lower ball joints. These used to be the NAPA Fleet Service part numbers & are now their only part number. NAPA used to carry two lines of suspension parts--their regular line & the Fleet Service Extreme Duty line. They discontinued the regular line & only have the "Precision Engineered" line which was the Fleet line. The upper joints are greaseable, the lowers are not. The lower joint does not come w/ a rubber or plastic seal per se, but instead have a seal integrated into the joint to keep out moisture & debris.
Ran into the same problems everyone else seems to have w/ gettin' the hub/bearing out of the steering knuckle. Followed the factory recommended procedure by backing off the bolts 1/4", but instead of tapping on them, I took an air hammer to them which slowly, but surely pushed the hub/bearing of the steering knuckle. Be forewarned... these bolts require a stout 14mm 12 point socket. You'll ruin the old bolts if you hammer on them, so go to Dodge & get 8 new ones before you start. Paid $54 (yikes!) for 9 of them & none of the local dealerships had them in stock. I happened to be near another dealer over 100 miles from here & they had 'em. Bought all they had. In getting the bolts loose I broke 2 cheap sockets before tracking down my Snap-On man for something I couldn't break. Didn't have any problem getting the hub nut off nor getting the axle stub shaft out of the hub/bearning (I have a 3/4" socket set w/ an adaptor for my 1/2" impact. If you have ABS, you'll need a 5 mm Allen hex socket to remove the ABS sensor from the hub/bearing.
Also had some real difficulty getting the ball joints out. Like I said, I used to do front end work & had never had a
need to use a ball joint press. If the shop where I worked had one it was nice, but not necessary. However, when I went to remove the lower ball joints I found I couldn't budge them w/ every trick I knew. Nothin' worked. Had to find a ball joint press that would do the trick. As it turned out, the standard ball joint presses most shops/part stores carried or rented wouldn't work. They weren't stout enough or large enough. Uh-oh. Could see dollar signs floatin' around. Buyin' a ball joint press was cheaper than havin' someone do it for me & least I'd now have a tool to do it again later. It is from OTC, a
Jeep/Truck Ball Joint Set, Part Number 8031. With some additional adapters it works for most all ball joints that require a press. The OTC 8031 press can be found on some Internet tool sites for as little at $220... not a bad price. You'll just have to plan ahead b/c it'll probably take a week or two to get it shipped to you. It installs the joints very nicely as well. Saved me tons of work & in the end saved me money.
Additionallh, I bought some Dana x-series u-joints to replace the OEM ones while it was all apart. Couldn't find really stout greaseable ones. (If a joint is sturdy, the middle cross is solid. If it is greaseable ,the middle cross is drilled & it loses strength, but gains durability. ) Did, however, pack the caps & needle bearings w/ really good Lubriplate white-lithium grease, so they should never need to be greased anyway. It is really expensive if you buy it at a parts store... like $10-$15/lb, but I keep a 40lb pail around to load my grease gun & pack bearings. Got that at a petroleum supply warehouse for around $2/lb.
Last of all was getting the hub/bearings back together. Read here where someone machined the hub/bearing down 1/1000th of an inch for an easier fit. Have found that a good stainless-steel twisted-wire wheel for a Makita 4" grinder is far & away the best rust remover made. It cleaned up both the knuckles & hub/bearning nicely & the hub/bearing would then just drop into the knuckle. Liberally coated the knuckle-to-hub surfaces w/ anti-seize as well at the hub splines & stub axle splice. Note: Don't use a SS wire wheel on thin or soft metal--it'll go thru it about as fast as a grinding wheel.
Like everyone else, I wonder why Dodge doesn't coat this stuff w/ anti-seize from the factory. Me thinks when we get another new Dodge one of the first things I'll do is take that front end apart & coat it w/ anti-seize.
Sorry I don't have some pictures to go w/ this, but the garage was too cold for it to work properly. I'll be really glad when I have a heated shop/garage.
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