Question, i am having my local shop do some work on putting the leveling kit and shocks and the tire and rim combo put on my truck.They put the truck on the rack and said there is a significant amount of play in the front end.He said the upper and lower ball joints are worn pretty bad and they need replacing.These are the factory ball joints in my truck and the truck only has 63k on the odometer.Is this normal for these trucks to have them go bad this early or with this low of mileage?I dont go off roading with it or got oversized tires on it but i lost my breath when he told me the cost of having them replaced and the front end alignment($811.00).Any and all help/info is greatly appreciated...

thanks
pat

 

I've got the same year truck. My passenger-side joints wentbad at about that mileage. My driver's-side joints just went bad this year at 85K. For reference, my last alignment was about $80.00. This means they are charging you roughly $731.00 for the joints. I figured about $50.00 per joint which means if they spend a full day on it (8 hours) they would be charging about 66.00 per hour. Basically, this would be about right for what I've seen around here. I may beway off on my figures, but again, seem about right.

Do yourself a favor, go rent a ball joint press and do them yourself. When you purchase your joints, the store that sells them to you might even loan you a press. You will stillneed to have it aligned, but you'll be saving a lot of money.

One more thing, I don't know if you're having this problem or not, but my ram used to drift like crazy to the right. All alignment shops told me that it was in tolerances. Well, turns out it wasn't.They may havegot a green light on their machine, but it wasn't good enough. I had a nasty caster drift. The only way to solve it on our rams (if it's a 1500) is to use an offset ball joint. The control arm cams didn't give enough adjustment to compensate for what my truck needed. Besides, I didn't like having the cams in different positions on each side. I'm telling you this now, because you may be able to take the trruck to the alignment shop first, get a reading of your caster offset. You can then buy theappropriate offset ball joints, install them, and have the alignment shop finish the alignment, because your toe will be off, and you might need your steering wheel re-centered. Mine did this for me and only charged me for one alignment, not two. I got Moog offsetlower ball joints. They were expensive, but my wrists don't get tired anymore trying to keep thetruck going in a straight line.

Hope this helps.

Jason

 

Yes, mileage sounds about right for ball joints to go out. I haul and off-road with mine, but it has 112k on it and I've replaced the ball joints twice.

The price you quoted sounds about right too. BTW, be glad you don't have a 2500 or 3500 with the bigger ball joints...$$$$.

Recommendation...while replacing the ball joints, make sure the axle joints are in good shape. If they're marginal replace them NOW. If they go bad later, you'll have to take the ball joints apart again to get to them, so you'll be paying the same labor and alignment costs twice instead of once.

 

Most shops dont mess with caster when doing alignments fyi, its too much of a hassle and not adjustable on most/all vehicles.

That price sounds right, do a few ball joints and you will hate them, they arent too bad if you buy a manual and do it your self, you dont need a ball joint press you just need to be creative. (hammer)

 

I just got done changing the ball-joints on my 1997. If you're looking at an alignment, best to check the inner/outer tie rods as well. I changed everything (ball joints, tie rods, pitman arm, idle arm) and my front end is freaking tight. The tie rods were very sloppy, and the ball joints were pathetic. All were the originals, which I could tell because of the lack of zerk fittings. The Pitman arm and idle arm were both tight; however, I consider changing them to be cheap insurance. Buy your parts from http://www.rockauto.com Much cheaper than the local parts houses even with shipping. Remember to count the number of turns for each tie rods and only change them out one at a time. You can also rent tie-rod removers as well. The money saved can be put towards the alignment cost.

 

Definately buy the adjustable ball joints regardless if you are doing them yourself or having them done. The offset ball joint allows you to adjust camber. If your camber is off you will either wear out the inside or outside of the tire because it effects the angle the tire sits.

The 4wd Rams do not have a way to adjust for camber. When I did mine I took it the alignment shop so they could tell me how bad the camber was. I knew it was bad based on how the tires were wearing. Then I went and bought the adjustable lower ball joints and installed them based on what the alignment shop told me. They areusually adjustable from -2.0 - +2.0. This allows you to adjust them again in the future if needed.

Since your going in that far definately inspect other front end items. You do not have to mess with the ball joints to change the axle joints so dont feel that you have to right now. The spindle does not come off when change the axle joints.

This article is well written and shows you the steps to removing everything but the spindle:
http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech/hub.php

This article is by the same person on the same truck going a little further and replacing the ball joints:
http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech/balljoint.php

The hardest part about all of this is removing the hub bearing from the knuckle. Rust forms in there and makes it hard to remove. When I did mine I put a nice bead of anti-seize in there when I put it back together. If I ever have to pull them out I will know if it will stay and prevent rust from forming.

 

The mechanic shop i take it to would have noticed other problems with it if they seen them.But i`ll make a note to them about other potential things that may go wrong.I noticed the factory ball jloints dont come with grease fittings .Why is this?Dont they know you need to add grease to the front end when you do service.I am not mad at all just confused it sucks this had to happen but better now then to be driving down the road and make a turn and they pop out or something like that nature.

thanks
pat

 

Well i got my truck back tonight 1,200.00 later and i asked for the old ball joints, on top of that they gave me my old shocks back as well.I noticed 1 of them was pretty bad and looked like it popped right out and fell cause theres nothing holding it in.Its dark now but maybe tomorrow i`ll take a pic of the truck with the new wheel combo and the ball joints.You figure they wouldve designed them to be bolted in instead of pressed in.Oh well it rides good now and im happy of the stance it has.Now its time to unload the old wheel set.

thanks for all the input .
pat
p.s. i also had the leveling kit put in and a set of shocks i purchased here and had the front end aligned.

 

We wouldn`t be having this conversation if mopar hadn`t copped out on the parts in these trucks and given us quality parts and designs with grease fittings. This is what happens when bean counting geeks design a truck.

 

I need to check my ball joints as I'm wondering if they are bad. I had bad shocks that were causing my tires to wear funny on the front but after changing the shocks it still seems to it so I'm wondering if maybe the ball joints are bad on my 01.