So I jacked up both sides and had a look around and checked out all the joints. The passenger joints and engine mount look fine, however the driver's side had two joints which were barely there/nonexistant (See below). Could these two blown ball joints be the cause of the shaking?
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1999 1500 4X4 XLT Laramie Quad-cab 5.9L auto. Only mods are a 2 into 1 Magnaflow cat, a 1 into 2 Flowmaster 40 series, plain old Champion copper plugs, and 3500 wheel cylinders.
Location: The Communist Puppet State of Mexifornia
Posts: 1,031
Quote:
Originally Posted by nakw
So I jacked up both sides and had a look around and checked out all the joints. The passenger joints and engine mount look fine, however the driver's side had two joints which were barely there/nonexistant (See below). Could these two blown ball joints be the cause of the shaking?
Click the next button to see the other two images.
Holy God. Do not drive that truck, it is 100% unsafe to drive in that condition. Get that thing towed to a shop to get those replace. That's your problem.
Wow, if the BJ looks like that, the rest of the front end took a major beating also, and you will find more steering/suspension parts to be on there way out or already done.
Before I saw your pic I was going to suggest looking at your ball joints, bearings, idler arm. My father had the exact same problem. All three of those items were shot. Your ball joints are clearly gone, but I would check the other items as well.
And once you get that sh1t fixed it'll drive like a new truck!
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1999 1500 4X4 XLT Laramie Quad-cab 5.9L auto. Only mods are a 2 into 1 Magnaflow cat, a 1 into 2 Flowmaster 40 series, plain old Champion copper plugs, and 3500 wheel cylinders.
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1999 1500 4X4 XLT Laramie Quad-cab 5.9L auto. Only mods are a 2 into 1 Magnaflow cat, a 1 into 2 Flowmaster 40 series, plain old Champion copper plugs, and 3500 wheel cylinders.
So went to Napa and bought the new upper and lower ball joints. Took me and a friend 5hrs to change them! What a pain in the ass! Ended up having to make our own ball joint press, broke his big C clamp and bent his smaller one, and am just glad its DONE! We checked everything else down there and everything else looks all right, so I'm hoping its just the ball joints. He pointed out to me though that my shocks are shot, so I'll have to change those when I get some $$$.
But on another note, the new ball joints I got have grease nipples, so I went out and bought a grease gun and filled up the top one easily, however the grease gun wont fit in above the lower grease nipple to grease it. I went a borrowed a neighbors grease gun and it still wont fit! So I held down the plastic cover on it and pushed as much grease as I could around the ball joint rod. Is that sufficient or do I need to go fork out some money and get my truck lubed at a shop? This old neighbor told me to pour oil over the entire ball joint, but for some reason I dont think that'd be a good idea. . .but what do I know? I have to drive it 80+miles tomorrow and I'm just hoping and praying that nothing happens. Any suggestions or advise on greasing that pain in the ass lower ball joint would be appreciated!!
P.S. So I take it its normal then for our Dodges to wander right then? I never thought anything of it until you mentioned it above, haha
