hello everyone, I just signed up for this thing like 5 min. ago and haven’t gotten the hang of anything here yet. So please forgive me if im posting in the wrong area or what ever, any advice will be appreciated! Any ways, I drive a 01 ram 4x4 offroad, its got a 5.5 skyjacker lift on it and a 3" body lift, and its on 36" iroks. The lift was on the truck when I bought it at 48K miles and it was on 36x16.50 dick cepecks, which didn’t have many miles left on them anyway. I knew it needed upper and lower ball joints and tie rod ends when I bought it. So I had all the work done at a local shop here. They told me they wore out prematurely because the tires were so wide. So I just went with some aftermarket, oem type replacement ball joints. Shortly after getting it back and saving some money I went with a new set of 36x13.50 Swamper Iroks. About 10k miles later I went to get it realigned at sears and they told me they couldn’t do it because the ball joints were so worn out, and they showed me the right to left play that my tires had because of how worn the joints were. I went back to the previous shop that did all the work and they agreed to replace them again, free of charge. So I paid them the difference and had them install high strength moog (sp??) joints. Long story short, here I am 8 months later and I go to get it inspected and they fail it because the ball joints are shot again. Sorry for the story of my life here but im so frustrated I'm about ready to just sell the truck. Does any one have any thoughts or ideas about the problems im having with my ball joints?

 

get the ball joints fixed right before you inspect the truck.

 

just kidding. hope someone cn help you. im retarderdly drunk

 

no I took it somewhere else who knew a friend who knew a friend of a friend type of deal and passed it. But the problem is still there. What Im saying is that I’ve put not even 25k miles on the truck since I’ve owned it and this will be its 3rd set of ball joints. Can any one shoot me any advice on this? does fabtech or anyone make some ridiculous ball joints that will hold together?

 

The only way to make sure the job was done right is to do it yourself. Ball joints really are not that hard, and you should not have a problem taking anything off since the job was just done. When i did mine i rented pullers and the ball joint seperator at Auto Zone. You can buy a Haynes or a Chiltons manual, or you can look at the tech article on balljoints on Pavementsucks.com.

 

Moog makes awesome ball joints, they might be lifetime warrenty? You just have to get the really expensive ones. 16.5 is a hell of a wide tire, and 13.5 is pretty wide to. But its not so much the tire being wide thats screwing everything up as it is the off set of the wheel. To be running 16.5s and 13.5s the tire has to be wide as hell, as LEAST 12" wide, and thats pushing it with a 16.5 on there. Anyways, a wheel 12" wide (or maybe more) is gonna play hell on ball joints and wheel bearings because they stick out so far.

All you can really do is look for some lifetime warrenty parts and a place that will continue to do the work under warrenty, which will probablyb e hard to find. Your best bet is to learn how to do ball joints yourself and get some really heavy duty ones, the Moog are great. Either that or get a kingpin D60 [8D]

 

yea, the rims are 12" wide, my dad said I should just buy some 10" wide rims and go with 37 12.50's or something, but im not trying to spend the extra $$. And I know the way my truck is set up I could expect a few problems here and there....but being able to waste a set of ball joints every 10k miles? I know the work was done right, and I know the ball joints were replaced, the first time, and then the second time too. The second time was with the moog joints, and after I got the truck back I got under there and looked and they said moog on the top of the joint. So i dont know what I should do. Someone told me fabtech made good ball joints, but i dont know if they make them for my truck or not.

 

Dod you get the $40 Moog's or the $90 Moog's? The more expensive ones are more heavy duty. They're non greasable and such, which usually makes this stronger and more durable.

 

Im not sure which ones I got, but I know when I got under there to change the oil and lube everything up I noticed that they did not have grease fittings.