Front end wore out @ 159K

[Cattletrkr]

My truck has been acting funny lately. Steering wheel bounces sometimes on righthand turns. Last night I jacked it up and checked it out. With the steering wheel full right, I had a hard time spinning the right tire. Also wiggled the left tire and found a bad ball joint.

Took it to the dealer this morning. All ball joints are going to be replaced. Left side both are shot and the right side are "within spec" so I said change them anyway. Both axles seals are leaking... still have to do my own inspection of that 'cause i'm not too sure about that. Pinion seal leaks... has for 10's of thousands of miles but the level is never low, I'll leave that alone for now. And of course both axle joints are going to get replaced.

When I left, the parts guy was looking into getting Precision axle joints. They prefer to use greaseable when the vehicle is out of warranty and I fully agree.

What about the ball joints though? The stockers made it this long, should I go with those again or should I look into Moog? I do have a slight pull to the right that I've read an offset joint would be able to cure. Greaseable, non greaseable?? Opinions please.

Truck goes in next thurs. so any parts I'd have to order would probably need to be ordered by tomorrow.

Thanks.

BTW... I'm not complaining about the problems. This bill will be about double what the lifetime repair bill has been on this truck to date. I'm still more than happy with it.

 

[JHardwick]

I'm not into the adjustable ball joints. I put all factory stuff back in mine @ around 200,000.

 

[Cattletrkr]

Did you have troubles with the adjustable joints?

I called the dealer shortly after posting this thread and asked if they've ever worked with Moogs. They have and they're now ordering them. I'm very happy with the life I've gotten out of my stock ball joints but I want to get rid of the pull to the right.

 

[FGoodwin]

I am in the repair bussiness. I have seen third gen trucks with as little as 6,000 miles that have bad ball joints, for some reason, the uppers are worse. I installed a "Specialty Alignment Brand" ball joint on one side because of the camber being off. They seem to be built well. I replaced all four of mine at around 40k. I got the two lower ones from Car Quest, and the other upper that is not off-set from Napa. Lots of places sell the Specialty brand, some under their own name, like csk and napa. After one week of driving and hitting the dunes, the Upper I got from NApa already has play. I think the specialty is the way to go, if you need a camber fix, and the car quest is the way to go for the standard type. All four of the aftermarket parts came with zerks. Not sure who makes the joints for napa or cq, probably moog or trw.

Frank

 

[FGoodwin]

Also, an "adjustable" ball joint for these trucks is not exactly as the name implies. They can get you diff. degrees of camber by being designed with different amounts of offset when they are built, and then they can be further adjusted by pressing them into the axle at different orientation. There are three offsets available, the offsets that are available offer either up to 1/2 degree, up to 1 degree, or up to 1. 5 degrees of camber adjustment. You pick how much adjustment you need based on the alignment readings, then you orient them in the axle to acheive the desired amount of camber change. hopefully you have a front end guy that knows how to use the rack correctly, it's a pain to have to press the joint out after putting everything back together because you did not get it right the first time.

Frank

 

[Hercules130]

lets see mine has 63,000 and i just had all the balljoints and the wheel joints done. it is in right now for the pinion leaking and the death wobble which should consist of new tie rods and steering damper and possibly a track bar bushing.

 

[bmoeller]

The ball joints I got from Carquest were Moog parts. They were both greaseable.

 

[FGoodwin]

lets see mine has 63,000 and i just had all the balljoints and the wheel joints done. it is in right now for the pinion leaking and the death wobble which should consist of new tie rods and steering damper and possibly a track bar bushing.

I cured the death wobble with the new ball joints, D/C has a tsb on it. At first I tried adding castor, i added 2 degrees over stock, still put me in the weeds if I hit a bad rough spot in the road.