Ball Joints

[Tennessee Jed]

I wondered if anyone could tell me how much should I expect to pay if I wanted someone to replace my ball joints. I don't have the time and tooling to get them out myself. It is my only vehicle and I can't have it down for a week while I try and find the tools and time to shade tree it.

If it is a monumental amount I may have no choice but to do it myself. The lower ball joint on the passenger side is fairly critical with about a sixteenth of an inch of play in it and hops some at interstate curves and braking between 40-70 mph.

 

[shift1313]

where are you measuring the play from? your wheel or the spindle somewhere? sometimes just repacking them with grease will give you a little more time to figure out what you are going to do.

The first time i did them on my truck i was working at an auto garage and i paid the mechanic to do it(with me helping) because he had the tools. I think i ended up paying him $90 plus parts. It was awhile ago. Its really not bad if you have a press or a ball joint tool and an impact wrench. The tool can be rented from most places(or purchased for less than a mechanic would charge, really just a big C clamp with pockets). the air tool isnt necessary but is very helpful. With no air tools you better have a vice to clamp the spindle in. I would expect to pay 2-3hrs labor. I dont know which setup you have. i think mine were integrated into the spindle but i remember having fun beating it with a hammer to unseat the tapered part.

If you have any shops around you that are local "shade tree" mechanics they will charge you the least. Those guys might charge you $100 + parts. a bigger shop may stick you with 3-5hrs labor so id budget $300-$400 including parts.

 

[BroncoJoe19]

I wondered if anyone could tell me how much should I expect to pay if I wanted someone to replace my ball joints.

I guess it depends a great deal upon where in the country you are having the work done.

Parts will be about $200 for (I think including the axel universal joints)

The front end shop priced it out at about $1200 including parts.

They may make things bigger in Texas, but the must think that we have deep pockets here in Jersey. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[Tennessee Jed]

Thanks guys. I don't see any way to add grease (no ******) the play was estimated by lifting the truck and wiggling the tire from top to bottom. I was checking to see where the shimmy was coming from while at higher speeds while taking interstate curves. Also a good bit of shaking while breaking at speeds greater than 45 mph. I was thinking I had a rotor warped or wheel bearing worn, but now I am very sure it is that bottom ball joint.

I am guessing you have to remove the entire spindle assembly and drive shaft end after the u-joint (or tie the shaft end out of the way) to get to the thing. It would be nice if all that did not have to come off.

 

[Croneybones]

I'm from NW PA. All my Bronco needs for inspection is a ball joint on the left passenger side and the little light for the license plate.

The ball joint itself costs 54.00

Then there's 3 hours of labor.

Total bill is 426.00.

 

[Broncobill78]

Thanks guys. I don't see any way to add grease (no ******) the play was estimated by lifting the truck and wiggling the tire from top to bottom. I was checking to see where the shimmy was coming from while at higher speeds while taking interstate curves. Also a good bit of shaking while breaking at speeds greater than 45 mph. I was thinking I had a rotor warped or wheel bearing worn, but now I am very sure it is that bottom ball joint.
I am guessing you have to remove the entire spindle assembly and drive shaft end after the u-joint (or tie the shaft end out of the way) to get to the thing. It would be nice if all that did not have to come off.

Yes, you have to remove the entire rotor assembly & disassemble the knuckle to replace the ball-joints. Unfortunately it's NOT a simple task. Some front end projects are more difficult but not many. Truth be told this is often a project that a lot of guys wind up selling their trucks over instead of doing the repair. It's NOT cheap to have a shop do it and it's not easy to do at home without the proper tools. I honestly wish I had something better to say about it but there it is. Ball-joints can **** especially when it's your daily driver and you don't have alternatives. A lot of ball-joints are "lubed-for-life" and don't have any provisions for grease fittings, there's even less you can do with those because that's just the way they're made.

If you want I'll scan & post the pages from the factory manual that show you how to disassemble the knuckle & replace the ball-joints. IT isn't rocket science but it CAN be a bitch if you haven't done it before or don't have access to the tools. You certainly DO have access to plenty of help and advise thru this forum but other than that there's not a lot I can do to *personally* help you. It might just be that there's someone close by that can help but other than that all I/We can offer is info & support. Lemme know if you'd like those scans posted.

 

[BroncoJoe19]

Thanks guys. I don't see any way to add grease (no ******) the play was estimated by lifting the truck and wiggling the tire from top to bottom.

TNJed, I don't doubt that it is your ball joint, but if you didn't see it move, then could it be a loose or warn bearing?

When my front end mechanic checked my ball joints, he lifted the vehicle so that the tire was an inch or two off of the ground and placed a pinch bar under the tire. He then raised and lowered the tire and wiggled the tire an inch and one could see the ball joint moving.

 

[shift1313]

I could be wrong here but i dont think that little play in the ball joint would cause your problem. I have had much more play than that and had no wiggles under the conditions your talking about.

Pulsing under braking is most certainly a rotor problem or potentially a wheel bearing issue. With the exception of the caster on the front end, during braking all your forces are fore/aft on the truck. If your ball joints had play and you nailed the brake, yes they might shift but they wont shift back and forth causing a vibration. If your toe in/out is off it will put extra bind on your ball joints causing them to wear faster(like mine). usually you will hear them click when you come to a complete stop or when you turn the wheel while sitting still or moving slightly. I would definitely investigate a little more before settling on the ball joints. It could be the joints in your steering/drag link setup. could be unbalanced tires. It could be shot axle pivot bushing that shift around during high speed cornering.

When doing your ball joints yes you do need to remove the caliper, rotor/hub assembly and slide the axle out after you unbolt the bearing race/spindle. If youve done that before and have all the tools your more then half way there. With the axle out you can gain access to the inner castle nut. once both are loose you take a big hammer and whack it till your assembly is loose. from there its just a matter of having/using the ball joint tool.



The nice thing about a job like this is you can do one side and gauge the time it takes to do. If you cant get both done do the other side the following weekend.

as far as price for parts, the local parts store sells the ball joints for $15-$35(moog). So $100 for ball joints. Even if you replace the rotors as well and bearings i cant see it being more than $250 in parts. If a shop tried to charge me $1200 i would throw a fit. But then again I only take my vehicles in for inspection.

There is enough help.knowledge here to walk you through it if you decide to give it a shot.

oh and make sure the new joints you get have greese fittins with them, and make sure the upper grease fitting is a 45degree angle or you'll never get to it.

 

[Broncobill78]

As Shift mentioned, the hard part of doing ball-joints is having the tools. You need more than just a set of wrenches & ratchets to replace them. You'll need to be able to take each side down the the bare axle, removing the spindle assembly and taking apart the knuckle to replace the ball-joints. IF you're ok with doing that then you can save yourself a LOT of coin. Shops generally charge something upwards of $40+/hr. A good mechanic can probably do the job in roughly *half* the time that the book calls for but you can be sure that you'll always be charged the book rate. This is a *classic* case of being able to save yourself some big cash by being able to do your own work, but you have to own or have access to the tools and have the info to do the job. Experience plays a big part in jobs like this but everyone HAS to do it for the first time at SOME point. As long as you have the tools and can get good advise then I'd say go for it.

I could be wrong here but i dont think that little play in the ball joint would cause your problem. I have had much more play than that and had no wiggles under the conditions your talking about.
Pulsing under braking is most certainly a rotor problem or potentially a wheel bearing issue. With the exception of the caster on the front end, during braking all your forces are fore/aft on the truck. If your ball joints had play and you nailed the brake, yes they might shift but they wont shift back and forth causing a vibration. If your toe in/out is off it will put extra bind on your ball joints causing them to wear faster(like mine). usually you will hear them click when you come to a complete stop or when you turn the wheel while sitting still or moving slightly. I would definitely investigate a little more before settling on the ball joints. It could be the joints in your steering/drag link setup. could be unbalanced tires. It could be shot axle pivot bushing that shift around during high speed cornering.

When doing your ball joints yes you do need to remove the caliper, rotor/hub assembly and slide the axle out after you unbolt the bearing race/spindle. If youve done that before and have all the tools your more then half way there. With the axle out you can gain access to the inner castle nut. once both are loose you take a big hammer and whack it till your assembly is loose. from there its just a matter of having/using the ball joint tool.



The nice thing about a job like this is you can do one side and gauge the time it takes to do. If you cant get both done do the other side the following weekend.

as far as price for parts, the local parts store sells the ball joints for $15-$35(moog). So $100 for ball joints. Even if you replace the rotors as well and bearings i cant see it being more than $250 in parts. If a shop tried to charge me $1200 i would throw a fit. But then again I only take my vehicles in for inspection.

There is enough help.knowledge here to walk you through it if you decide to give it a shot.

oh and make sure the new joints you get have greese fittins with them, and make sure the upper grease fitting is a 45degree angle or you'll never get to it.

 

[Tennessee Jed]

WOW! thanks for the input guys!

I can see the lower ball joint move and feel it too so I know that it worn pretty good. I put rotors on last year and the only difference I found about doing my 94 (over my previous Broncos 92 and 86) was the way the caliper mounted and that tone ring for the abs which had me sweating bullets afraid I was going to break them getting them off. The high speed wiggle during slight turns and breaking could most definitely be alignment issues and/or wheel bearings, but I think the rotors are true and I do not feel any pulse at the pedal like a rotor typically gives. When I had the rotors off last year I inspected and repacked the wheel bearings and felt no free play after or yesterday.

It would be nice to have the time and dollas to re-do the entire front end...bushings, bearings, ball joints, tie rod ends, calipers, rotors, pads, lockers, break hoses and U-joints while I had them removed. Then get a nice new set of tires and a good alignment, and see how well tires are supposed to wear.

To dream a beautiful Bronco dream...

 

[Broncobill78]

One thing that's important to always keep in mind is that if you can shift front-end parts *by hand* then think of just how far that same piece will deflect when a 3ton truck is bearing on it at 50mph. The difference is force applied is staggering. If it will move at ALL by hand then it will move a *whole lot more* when your 3T truck hits a bump at 50+mph. That's why any motion you can see by HAND is unacceptable. This isn't just a bunch of guys being henpecked old women, it's about having a safe vehicle. 3 tons of glass and steel HAS to be safe and managable, there's just no two ways about it. Keep it safe or keep it home. Tooling around at highway speeds you aren't just risking yourself, if you were it would be a different game, but the other people who share the road with you have the right to expect that you won't suddenly veer out of your lane. Having a toy is all well & good, but having a *safe* toy is what's important and I think that everyone here can agree with that. It's important to keep a good close eye on your front end, I'd say that a good percentage of the members here are Family men and safety is more important to us than anything else. Fun is fun, but safety is foremost.

WOW! thanks for the input guys!
I can see the lower ball joint move and feel it too so I know that it worn pretty good. I put rotors on last year and the only difference I found about doing my 94 (over my previous Broncos 92 and 86) was the way the caliper mounted and that tone ring for the abs which had me sweating bullets afraid I was going to break them getting them off. The high speed wiggle during slight turns and breaking could most definitely be alignment issues and/or wheel bearings, but I think the rotors are true and I do not feel any pulse at the pedal like a rotor typically gives. When I had the rotors off last year I inspected and repacked the wheel bearings and felt no free play after or yesterday.

It would be nice to have the time and dollas to re-do the entire front end...bushings, bearings, ball joints, tie rod ends, calipers, rotors, pads, lockers, break hoses and U-joints while I had them removed. Then get a nice new set of tires and a good alignment, and see how well tires are supposed to wear.

To dream a beautiful Bronco dream...