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Aftermarket Ball Joints

3K views 12 replies 10 participants last post by  bigredn86 
#1 ·
I noticed a clunking today on my way into work whenever turning the wheel, sounded like the onset of a failed ball joint. There's some rust powder around the boot, which leads me to believe it's about ready to be replaced.

The Dodge dealer wants something like $167 per, and that's just the parts... I'm not sure if it's the same as the other trim lines or not. One thread I found on another forum was about the same thing, but no confirmation. I asked the dealer but they said they search by VIN only and couldn't provide me with the answer I needed.

Can anyone recommend a good ball joint to replace the stockers? I know Advance has a ton of MOOG stuff, and with the 40% off codes they always have, it's not a bad deal. Anyone ever run those or have any other suggestions? I can't really tell for sure if the SS/T has a different ball joint than the other trim lines, and that's the one thing that's holding me up from ordering anything.
 
#11 ·
If you know how to take the whole unit bearing and axle shaft out together, then ~$30 at a shop to swap the ujoints.

Remove tire/wheel
Take off brake caliper and hang it with a bungee
remove rotor
take axle nut off (large size)
Remove 4 6-point bolts on the backside of the knuckle that holds the unit bearing
it may require some creativity with the steering to provide some umpf on the bolts to push unit bearing out
Slide whole assembly out carefully supporting the axle shaft so as not to disturb the axle seal inside by the differential.

voila
 
#13 ·
I might be a little late with this response -

My ball joints (upper and lower) went out this past February - around 105,000 miles. I had that god awful squeaking/creaking sound. I decided since everything was going to be pulled apart, I would go ahead and replace my wheel hubs, tie rod ends, calipers, rotors, pads, etc. I decided to be cheap and I purchased MevoTech replacement parts (ball joints, upper control arms, tie rod ends, and stabilizer links).

I am not sure if anyone else has had issues with this company but here is what I experienced:

Truck started squeaking and creaking again after approximately 20,000 miles. I give my ball joints a pump or two of grease every oil change (5,000 miles). I looked under the truck and the boot separated from the ball joint on the passenger side. The driver side upper ball joint was already cracked open and the upper control arm bushings were dry-rotted. The stabilizer link bushings were dry-rotted and completely torn apart and the boot on the passenger side link was separated.

I have a 1986 Toyota 4wd Pickup as well. I basically replaced the entire front end with Moog parts around 5-6 years ago and 20,000 miles (most of which is off-road). To this day, everything has held up with no issues (except a broken spindle).

My advice - don't be cheap. Buy quality parts and in my opinion, MevoTech parts are not quality. I have never had bushings / ball joints fail so quickly as they did. I replaced all of those MevoTech parts this past weekend with Moog. No more popping/squeaking/creaking sounds and the steering and handling feels so much tighter than it did before. Oh - I went ahead and replaced my lower control arm bushings as well (NAPA has them). Hope this helps all that comes across this post.
 
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