2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission What's up with ball joints?

[Royk]

I went to get an alignment recently because the insides of my front tires were wearing down to the belting. Guy said both of my lower balljoints were bad. Not bad enough to fail inspection, but there was some movement. He said he would align it as-is if I wanted to, but recommended I replace the ball joints first. This got me a bit PO'd since the upper and lower on the drivers side were replaced under warranty about 15 months ago.



I don't know a whole lot about alignment and ball joints. Is it possible for just the lower ball joints to go bad but the uppers are OK? Could someone give me a part # they know to be good for an '02 FWD? Thanks.



Roy

 

[Jschafer]

I don't have a part # for you but I can tell you yes the lowers will go out before the uppers. As far as your tire wear, do you rotate your tires? Even with a good alignment on a 4x4 the tires will wear on the edges because the front end is a straight axle. I have moog ball joints (most part stores) in my truck as they are lifetime warranty and I am probaly on my fifth set. I keep my tires rotated, usually every other oil change and I had 65k on the set of tires I just replaced.

Hope this helps

Just noticed you have a plow so do I 8' fischer commercial, my first set of ball joints went out before I even had a plow on it. Don't let them give you any crap about the plow being the problem THESE TRUCKS eat ball joints

 

[OTRPU]

I'll second the eating the ball joints. And if your track bar is bad it will happen even more often. How I found this out, replaced everything under there cept the track bar. Well, it just kept eating steers. I hear the trucks newer than mine they beefed up the track bar and maybe some other things. If you have an older truck, mine needed bout everything replaced.



Cheers,

Steve J

 

[Royk]

Well, while I do sometimes rotate the tires, I don't do it nearly as often as I should. But I never have since my '94 and never had a problem like this where they wore so severely and rapidly.



As far as the track bar is concerned, I just replaced it about a month ago (again, at the alignment guys suggestion).



Is it possible to buy ball joints for this truck with grease fittings?



Roy

 

[LDPetersen]

ball joints

I just got mine done today. 95' ctd 4x4 ext. cab. 160k miles. All original till today. Needed the trac bar and ball joints. alignment. I don't think that is too bad for 10 yrs. and the miles. mostly hard working miles. About $700. 00 at a local alignment shop. Lifetime warranty on parts. I plan to keep this one 300-400k miles like my old 92 ctd. Are the 99' to 02' s lighter built? Hope my wifes 99' gasser holds up ok. Larry.

 

[Jschafer]

My Ball joints have grease fittings, the wear on your tires could be a different problem with the alignment I am not sure.

 

[LDPetersen]

My tires all wore perfectly even until the last 3,000 miles. Half of that was a trip coming home and I noticed the wear. Had not had a chance to get it in until now. Was about 157k miles when I noticed it. I hope the ball joints they put on today have grease fittings. I do like to throw grease at things that move. Maybe why I have not had any problems till now. Larry.