Ball Joints

[JKellis]

I have a 99 2WD Dually. I recently noticed that the outer edges of the front tires are wearing faster than they should. So before the old girl goes in for an alignment I thought I should check for worn ball joints, tie rod ends, etc. Lucky for me everything was really tight, no slack at all. But there is a problem I have never seen before, all the ball joint rubber boots were crumbling and one of the lowers was completely missing (the rubber boot, not the ball joint LOL). I think the ball joints are originals because there are no grease zerks. I found replacement boots and ordered a set, should be no problem replacing them. If the joints had zerks, I would push excess grease through them to force out any grit that mat have gotten onto them. Would it be ok to just drill the top of the ball joint and add grease fittings?

 

[DavidC]

I did that on my 99 when new. I picked up a bunch of different angle Zerks at Auto Zone or Oreilly's.

Dave

 

[SSage]

Are you talking about the control arm ball joints? I've only had to replace my 4 ball joints on the control arms, tie rods and stuff are still working good actually on my 95 dually.

If your going to put the labor in already for boots, why not replace the ball joints? I've been happy with the XRF ball joints for a few years now. I think they will last longer than the OEM, they are much heavier and are greasable. Ball joints aren't that expensive, I bought XRF last time and Moog a couple times before on two other trucks. I will stay with XRF unless they change like Moog did.

If you get into ball joint work, I found that the tools from Advanced Auto Parts work the best. I got the ball joint press tools on a free rental, can't beat free. Ball joints were bought on eBay. I hate messing with them, but I like knowing its done right. The 2wd Ram is a pain, mine were press fitted into the control arms or "A arms" and they are a bear to remove for the first time. The XRF joints are a little bigger than stock, so they go in nice and tight.

My OEM ball joints went down hill fast once the boots were gone. Just a little grit destroys them. Not something to mess around with, breaking one can cause lots of damage or leave you stranded at a bad time. I had a work friend break an upper in a parking lot over 100 miles from home. That sucked, but at least it broke in a parking lot and not on I-20 at 70 mph! His were squeaking bad though.

 

[JKellis]

Thanks Dave and Sage
After drilling, tapping, and adding grease zerks, I knocked the tapers out of the spindles one at a time, cleaned the ball joints out real good, replaced the boots and reassembled. There was no noticeable wear in the ball joints so with periodic lube they should last until the control arm bushings give it up. At least that's the plan. I drove V8 Dakotas for years so I am used to replacing ball joints. With a Dakota or Durango you can plan on replacing ball joints sometime between every fifth to tenth oil change. The best quality joints I have found are the premium grade ones from NAPA (with the blue boots). They have grease fittings and the boots are sealed to the joint from the factory. On the Dak they lasted much longer than Moogs. I never tried XRF but I will keep them in mind when the time comes. The only reason I am waiting to replace the ball joints with the control arm bushings is that they are much easier to do with the control arm off the truck. I have a friend with a hydraulic shop press - just set them up, push the button, done!