Ball Joint Replacement for Steel A Arms

[Eddie 70]

Rotating my tires this afternoon and I was checking to see if everything is okay up front. Grab the wheel and 9 and 3 and push left and right and everything seems nice and tight. Grab the wheel at 12 and 6 and lift up and there is movement it seems at the top of wheel. Seems to me the upper ball joint is toast.

I am looking to replace the upper ball joint and want to make sure to use quality parts so it does not come around again for some time. My truck is at stock ride height. I don't know what it was during it's first 42k miles. I have had it for the last 25K miles. MOOG used to make good suspension replacement parts. Does anyone have the replacement part number for the ball joints on these trucks they can share or have you guys been wholesale changing out the control arms.

 

Mine are steel upper control arms. Looking for any and all input on replacement info!

 

Thanks,

Eddie

[Eddie 70]

Looks like I may have answered my own question and found what I think I need to buy. Any thoughts on these control arms? Mine is a street driven 2wd truck.

 

 

http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=4204149&cc=3294345&jsn=536

[groutguy]

I replaced my daughters control arms with the Moog CK80069 & CK80070.

They are the upgraded version with replaceable ball joints. The ball joints appear to be significantly more heavy duty than the factory OEM, and they are also greasable.

I've been using Moog suspension parts for a number of years, and they've always been high quality.

The "R" series part number for Moog, is slightly cheaper and are designed to be closer to OEM. Make sure to spend the extra coin on the "CK" series part number.

[Eddie 70]

Thanks for the reply groutguy. I had picked out the CK versions of the arms for the grease fittings.

 

How big of a job is this going to be? I rebuilt the front suspension on my 70 corvette a few years ago but it didn't have struts.

[Billy346]

Thanks for the reply groutguy. I had picked out the CK versions of the arms for the grease fittings.

 

How big of a job is this going to be? I rebuilt the front suspension on my 70 corvette a few years ago but it didn't have struts.

This is off topic, but that's a really nice Corvette in in your avatar. Do you have any more pictures of it?

[groutguy]

Replacing the ball joints isn't too bad, I can replace all 4 in about 8 hrs. on jack stands with a bad back.

It will help if you pre-soak all of the threaded suspension fasteners ahead of time. The sway bar bushings should will need to be removed for accessing the control arm bushing bolts, and make sure to tie the cv shafts and brake calipers out of the way. Dropping the brake caliper, and/or letting it hang on the brake hose will damage the brake hose. Also make sure to tie up the outer tie rods to prevent damaging them.

When reassembling; make sure to put blue lock tite on the brake caliber brackets, and torque them to 135 ft.lbs.

The wheel bearing nuts get torqued to 170 ft.lbs. A 1/2 inch drive impact gun is the easiest way to get the wheel bearing nuts off, otherwise use a screwdriver against the caliper and the cooling vanes to keep the hub from turning.

Good luck!

[Eddie 70]

I just ordered both upper a arms from Amazon Prime. Should be her by the 25th I believe it said. Both are CK versions with the grease fittings which I like much better than non serviceable type. Since my truck is 2wd I think it shouldn't be too bad to swap them out. We'll see soon.

[Eddie 70]

This is off topic, but that's a really nice Corvette in in your avatar. Do you have any more pictures of it?

 

I do have more pics of it but I will have to add them to this post the next time I am on my laptop. I got thousands of pics. That car has had every nut and bolt touched on it by me at least once. It's ready to go anywhere.

[groutguy]

Sorry, I didn't notice that you have the 2wd. The front wheel bearing torque I listed is for a 4wd.

Your front wheel bearing torque will be based off of a rolling torque spec using a spring scale.

"Don't" torque your front bearings to 170 ft. Lbs., that will be waaaay too high.

[Eddie 70]

Sorry, I didn't notice that you have the 2wd. The front wheel bearing torque I listed is for a 4wd.

Your front wheel bearing torque will be based off of a rolling torque spec using a spring scale.

"Don't" torque your front bearings to 170 ft. Lbs., that will be waaaay too high.

 

Where are you finding torque specs at? I might try to get this done on Friday when the arms get here.

[Eddie 70]

My old car. It's a 1970 Convertible with both tops. It has a 5 speed, rack and pinion steering, full leather interior. Every nut and bolt has been touched. Triple black. 2002 LS1 from a 25k SS Camaro. Cammed, heads, headers etc. I'm not much of a tuner so it runs a little weird at times when coming to a stop sign. Otherwise runs great.