play in new ball joints

[skorski]

Well I hope i made the right move. I decided on napa ball joints. and bilstin shocks, the ride is mutch smoother and tighter. Got 67k out of oem. One thing the mec. noticed with the new ball joints was the play and movement up and down. He said he never seen a ball joint with so mutch play out of the box,so he checked all 4 and all 4 were the same. All 4 can't be defective . has anyone else noticed thisOo.

 

[Turbo Kidd]

Well, I am going to be honest with you, so please do not take it personal... . NAPA ball joints suck! The Bilstien shocks are great, and I think you can attribute your improved ride to that. I switched to the NAPA ball joints after my factory ones went bad. I got about 60,000 miles out of the stock ball joints, and I only got 22,000 out of the NAPA's. They had play from day one too, but my thinking was the same as your... . They all can't be bad, or can they?



I switched to Moog Ball Joints and I love them. No issues in over 40,000 miles. They are tight and I grease them very 3,000 miles. They cost more up front, but well worth the investment.



Good Luck!

 

[mwilson]

The uppers have vertical movement built in due to the design of the steering knuckle. Are you sure that all 4 had play or just the upper 2??? They move in and out quite a bit.

I replaced my factory ones with Moog and there was a paper in the box that explained the vertical play in the upper joints.

This would be right out of the box, not after installation by the way.

If the play occured after installation then they may not have been torqued in the proper sequence, there is a right and a wrong way to do that.

 

[skorski]

Some times I think belonging to tdr gives me a bigger headake then not . Just when i think i got it all figured out someone slipps one in on me . Just the upers had play . Labored for a long time on witch ball joints and now the TURBO KID comes along. It use to be just go to the garage and put joints in and you were good to go . . Go figure

 

[mwilson]

If the ball joints are within specs after you had them installed, you should be good to go. You may not have any trouble with them at all. Remember that the people on here use these trucks in many different ways so sometimes there is more than just the brand name involved. It would not surprise me if Moog makes the ball joints for NAPA anyways.

 

[Bob4x4]

If you are cking on the truck there should be NO play in the verticle axis.

 

[mwilson]

You still haven't said if the slack in the upper ball joints was before or after installation. If the uppers had vertical movement when you took them out of the box then no worries as that is how they work. You did say that it was only the uppers so I assume that it was before you had them installed and if that is the case then shame on the mechanic for not explaining that to you or finding out on his own that they are designed that way.

 

[skorski]

Sorry about that the play was before install All looks good now thanks for the input to all

 

[mwilson]

Glad to hear that, now go enjoy your truck. Oo. Oo.

Make some black smoke and be happy... ... ..... Always makes me feel better