upper ball joints

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hamsterhats

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Just took my dart to the neighborhood mechanic to have a bolt broken. He said that the upper ball joints needed to be replaced. He said that it may not be something that I would want to do. Is this difficult? He said that the bottoms were easier. It would cost about 400 for him to do it. Does this sound right?
 
Just took my dart to the neighborhood mechanic to have a bolt broken. He said that the upper ball joints needed to be replaced. He said that it may not be something that I would want to do. Is this difficult? He said that the bottoms were easier. It would cost about 400 for him to do it. Does this sound right?
wow thats high
 
All you gotta do is put the car on stands, loosen the upper ball joint nut and whap it with a hammer upward a few times till it pops loose from the spindle then put a floor jack under the lower and raise it up a lil so you can take the nut the rest of the way off the upper joint and remove the arm to take to machine shop to remove/replace ball joints, or get the socket and remove and replace it yourself, that way you can leave the arm on the car.

reinstall in reverse order, it's really easy to do.

btw the only thing easier about the lower joint is that it bolts on with sockets you already have.
 
The ball joints are about $40 each. You need a special socket that will cost you about $35 (or rent/borrow from the local parts store). You will also need a pickle fork to separate the ball joint from spindle.

The ball joints screw in and the most difficult thing will be cracking them loose. It will certainly take a long breaker bar with a pipe extension. Also, if they have been done before and the threads in the control arm were stripped they could have been tack welded in.

If everything goes smoothly it could be as little as an hour per side. If they are stubborn, ??????????
 
Price sounds high to me also. It's not that difficult to do yourself.......really easier to do uppers and don't even have to pull the arm off unless you run into a problem w/ rust or something.

You will need an UBJ socket or something homemade that will suffice. Search the suspension forum here for lots of good advice.....You can do it yourself and save $$$
 
you don't need the "socket", use a pipe wrench or big crescent wrench. Even if you have to buy one that will work you still have a tool that will do lots of jobs, not just one.
 
400 sounds about right for a mechanic who knows that these things never go smoothly.

Figuring about $60 in parts and 340 in labor only gives him about 2 hours per side......that seems like a good estimate if things go poorly.

That being said you will probably encountered the latter as soon as you try it yourself.

If you have time and want to learn do it to it.....if you want to relax and drink beer while watching a football game this weekend then I think you know what you have to do.

Some struggles are best left to those who are forced to as a living.

Good luck with your endeavor....I have done ups and lowers.....hated the lowers uppers were a cuss fest and busted knuckle party....not so bad.
 
I replaced my upper ball joints last summer, along with the rest of the suspension. Took just a saturday. Bought all the parts, and tools from Just Suspensions. They have a ball joint socket that fits right on top of the ball joint, and you use it as a regular socket...but with a breaker bar and a jack handle to turn it. Not a problem at all to do that fix. The whole thing parts and tool wise cost me about $380 from just suspensions, plus a saturday that I would've spent working on the car anyway.
 
PS.....If you do it yourself, try the Moog off set ball joints for better alignment. Improved caster I believe. Someone here has the part number I'm sure...or try Mancini or suspension pros....

Also SLATHER in anti seize.....good luck:cheers:
 
Thats a trip, I've only seen the offset upper control arm bushings.

Although I did have an offset upper when I spun the valiant out @ 60mph and grazed a curb doing a 180* then was kicked back around.
 
My bad....that's what I meant...offset bushings.:read2:

Me read my posts better b4 me push send button next time.
 
Hey crazyguy there is no need to get all angry over your drunken accidents and take this other guys mistake on reading the info wrong out on him because you were mad about it. Gettin all wildandcrazy on him just cause he didnt know. Tell squirrel guy I will help him with his upper ball joints for 5k. Sounds like a good price. I mean good god the cost of tubular upper control arms with ball joints in them is 379 from magnumforce so why in the flying dog truck would you pay some shade tree mechanic 400 to replace the ball joints....................


We have a little saying in the Marine Corps. Goes along the lines of "Common Sense is an Uncommon Virtue"



Jeff
 
I did mine a few months ago get the special socket from canadian tire if your in canada or whatever your equal is in the US on the rent a tool program then put your 3/4 inch drive ratchet with 1" drive on it and use a bumper jack as a 4 foot extension just lube it up first and let it sit a day or so and if you have to use a torch to heat it up a bit but not too much or you will tear out the threads and make sure you let it cool for a while before you torque in the new one. This was the first ball joint I have done in my life took maybe 2 hours to do both side and my car is far from show more like most people parts cars
 
Ok I did mine 2 weeks ago I used i think Precision uppers they are made by Dana. I got them from AutoZoo for $15 each lifetime warranty I rented the socket from Advance Auto cause AutoZoo didn't have it. It took me less then 3 hours to do them and I had never tried before. So for $30 bucks I got new ones installed. Thats $370 cheaper then your quote.
 
Hey squirrelmaster me and crazyguy and sitting here drinkin beer laughing about your post. I was just giving him a hard time because he is a friend of mine. No reason to get all bent out of shape. Either way 400 is way too much. And for the record I am sitting here with a seperated shoulder so your right I ain't very tough at all


Jeff
 
now i feel like a dick.lol lol lol lol lol. I was just at the track thinking about my comment, hoping that you wouldn't post back this message. God i feel like a dick! Crazy has chimed in on most of my posts, i needed to defend him. I am red in the face, sorry! Where are you guys?
 
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