Hey guys
I got a 98 dodge ram 1500 5.2 L 2 wheel drive love the truck till i did some travel on the Mass turn pike and eneded up hitting a lot of pot holes and ruts in the road
After that I get a real loud bang now on the drivers side brought to a auto shop and was told ball joints are gone so I replaced them still there just did an upper control arm still there the bottom was welded in place,
So I rechecked the front end and the lower Ball Joint does have some play up / down I wonder when they welded it if they did not melt the plastic peice inside where the ball sits

 

Welcome to DF! You want to be in the second gen ram section.

For the banging, check your lower shock bolts. They get torqued to some stupid number.....

 

Everything seems to be tight But I did notice when they welded the lower Ball joint the shaft now moves up an down so I tend to think maybe the Teflon ball inside got melted so that bang may be from that So i have to order a new lower control arm and lets hope that's it

 

Yeah, they shouldn't have welded it. Did they weld them all? Or just that one?