04' 3500 Upper Ball Joint Replacement

patriotplumber · October 9, 2011

I have replaced the lower ball joint and was in process of doing uppers when I got a weird feeling. I removed the upper control arm, pressed out ball, however the old one did not have splines or clip. The new one has them. I looked up info on alldatadiy and it just says part of control arm. The bj needs replaced, oil monkey blew it out! My question is, do I need to get a complete arm, or can this ball joint be installed into my arm? I have a torsion suspension 1 ton 2 wd. If I have to get new arm it sucks. And why would they sell a ball without knowing that?

THANK YOU

I love this forum, nothing but great help!

Diesail · October 9, 2011

Can't say I know the answer to your question but it intrigued me so I went to rock auto and looked up the part. They have 5 uppers listed and four with pictures. Of the pictures two had splines and clip the other two did not. I would guess simply a different design but it sure looks replaceable to me.

patriotplumber · October 10, 2011

Can't say I know the answer to your question but it intrigued me so I went to rock auto and looked up the part. They have 5 uppers listed and four with pictures. Of the pictures two had splines and clip the other two did not. I would guess simply a different design but it sure looks replaceable to me.

Thanks for looking into it, I'm gonna check rock auto and see what they show. Will post my findings. I usually either figure it out or find an answer, however this deal just felt funny. Hence the post.

After looking at rock auto only 1 bj looks close to the original. I guess I'd need to picture the control arm for better reference. this is real close to OE.

ruggedlife · October 10, 2011

it should be fine, just double check your partnumber and youll be good, alot of moog after market bj's have different splines, some even have clips holdin them in as well, ive never pulled out a stock ball joint and had the aftermarket one look 100 percent like the stocker

Kodiak450 · October 10, 2011

I had both lower and upper replaced on both sides couple years ago. Though I have a 2500HD not a 3500HD I'm assuming the front end is the same. The upper's came out like the lowers and no arm needed to be replaced. Took the mechanic like 10 mins to do both and get the wheel back on.

ChevyTech77 · October 10, 2011

GM does not service just the upper ball joint on these vehicles. It is done with a complete control arm assembly only. All full size trucks, and utilities, from the GMT800 start, are applicable to this. If you get an upper ball joint from the aftermarket, I would hope that it is splined to bite into the arm good and have a clip to keep it in the arm but beware, GM does not service them like this for a reason, they usually don't stay put in the arm. I've had o.k. luck and I've had

bad luck, all depends on the arm and the material that it is made out of. Most of the arms are even available aftermarket now for a much better price than GM, as well.