Attention: TDR Forum Junkies I was ready for the 4th set of balljoints in 60k miles, and went aftermarket this time.
Went with the new moog adjustable GREASEABLE uppers, and some lowers from napa.
I haven't seen much posted about the moogs. I had taken a picture, but the camera crapped out and lost it on me. Anyway, they are greaseable and adjustable. The shaft that comes out, starts straight, then kicks over to the side a little. There is an internal seal in the joint. It is adjusted by removing the grease fitting and putting in an allen key to turn the shaft.
I pointed the offset straight back, so I didn't have any camber change, although it will affect caster a little like this though. It still has to be aligned as you can't eyeball it perfect.
The truck drives great, put a little pulling due to the alignment being off.
As for the R&R, it was easy up until the balljoints had to come out.
The design of the knuckle is such that you need to have the threaded end of the balljoint press on the bottom of the knuckle to remove the lower joint. This means you need a non-std. adapter. Or you can do what I did and try doing it while the threaded shaft is pressed aginst the outside of the knuckle a little, and proceed to break the shaft in two! I ended up welding a nut to the end of the shaft to finish the job.
I also had to weld two adapters together to work on the bottom joint as the stud gets pressed into the hole in the lower adapter before the joint is out of the knuckle with the std length adapter.
And for those who haven't tried the socket and extension trick to press out the wheel bearing, it works GREAT!
Another thing to keep in mind is that for some reason the axle shafts are very stiff to get in and out the last 1 inch or so. I don't know what is up but I had to pry on them to get them started out, and use a rubber mallet to get them all the way back in. I've done enough axle shafts before where this seemed really odd to me, every other axle I've worked on the shaft goes in and out easily as long as it is aligned properly, and I know I was aligned as the shaft was turning the pinion.
Went with the new moog adjustable GREASEABLE uppers, and some lowers from napa.
I haven't seen much posted about the moogs. I had taken a picture, but the camera crapped out and lost it on me. Anyway, they are greaseable and adjustable. The shaft that comes out, starts straight, then kicks over to the side a little. There is an internal seal in the joint. It is adjusted by removing the grease fitting and putting in an allen key to turn the shaft.
I pointed the offset straight back, so I didn't have any camber change, although it will affect caster a little like this though. It still has to be aligned as you can't eyeball it perfect.
The truck drives great, put a little pulling due to the alignment being off.
As for the R&R, it was easy up until the balljoints had to come out.
The design of the knuckle is such that you need to have the threaded end of the balljoint press on the bottom of the knuckle to remove the lower joint. This means you need a non-std. adapter. Or you can do what I did and try doing it while the threaded shaft is pressed aginst the outside of the knuckle a little, and proceed to break the shaft in two! I ended up welding a nut to the end of the shaft to finish the job.
I also had to weld two adapters together to work on the bottom joint as the stud gets pressed into the hole in the lower adapter before the joint is out of the knuckle with the std length adapter.
And for those who haven't tried the socket and extension trick to press out the wheel bearing, it works GREAT!
Another thing to keep in mind is that for some reason the axle shafts are very stiff to get in and out the last 1 inch or so. I don't know what is up but I had to pry on them to get them started out, and use a rubber mallet to get them all the way back in. I've done enough axle shafts before where this seemed really odd to me, every other axle I've worked on the shaft goes in and out easily as long as it is aligned properly, and I know I was aligned as the shaft was turning the pinion.
