I am getting ready to replace the upper and lower ball joints in my 2003 ram 1500 and was wondering what was the best brand to get and if it is a hard job to do.I did notice that the upper's come with a new a-arm is this right or can you get the upper's by there self.Also is it difficult to do the bottoms.
Thanks in advance
Jeremy Pruitt

 

i have the same issue, however ill only be doing the upper driverside ball joint. the upper comes with the whole control arm. there 2 bolts that holds it to the frame and you have to seperate the ball joint from the spindle. the lower one is just the ball joint and it has to be pressed out because of the rivets. you can put new rivets in afterwards, but i would just put some bolts on it. any more questions or details just ask.

look in the leveling kit DIY for a little bit of reference on sperating the upper ball joint and lowering the lower control arm since its under pressure because of the coil.

 

I'm doing both sides upper and lower on Friday. I got a great deal on the whole set off of Ebay and the bonus is that they all have grease fittings.
I'll probably do new pads too since they looked a bit worn and they're over a year old. Might do front shocks and get it alligned too.
We'll see if that quiets down the front end noise.
I'll let ya know how it goes.

 

got them on ebay huh? ill have to check it out. id like to get all for as well since all the boots are ripped, but the only one that has play is the upper on the driver side, so im gonna start with that.

 

Spicer or Moog are what I've always been told are the best as far as brands go for balljoints. The shop I used to work at always used Spicer stuff. It's what I put in my Caprice when I did them. I'm not too familiar with how they are on the 3rd gen rams as I've never done them. Sorry I can't be of more help. If they are riveted in on the bottom like said above I've found the easiest thing out of the things I've tried is to take a air hammer with a chisel and chisel the top of the rivets off then pry the ball joint out once you get the rivets cut out. Normally the ball joints come with bolts that you replace the rivets with. The rivets aren't a rivet like a normal rivet gun uses so most people can't put them back in themselves that way the bolts just make it a ton easier. Easier to change next time too.

 

you can bang them out like you said, but im pretty sure you can bring it to a shop and theyll press it out for you for like $20. only problem with that is that you have to completly unbolt the lower control arm.

 

Yeah it was only like 189.00 buy it now...shipping was under 20 bucks too. He's even got tie rod ends for 29.00 a pair. Has great feedback and I think the joints are Moog if I'm not mistaken.

 

i was just looking on there. you can get the lowers for like $20 plus shipping. and $125 plus shipping for both upper. im gonna just get 1 upper for now and replace the others down the line, if i still have the truck. for one upper is $63 and $19 for shipping.

 

If the lowers have rivets holding them in you don't press them out. You have to cut the rivets then they just come out. The press in ones usually don't have rivets on them. Atleast none that I've seen. Do these trucks have rivets and press in? I wouldn't think they would be like that but maybe they are. The Chevy Caprice I have that I just did I cut the rivets off and it came right out. Then the lower ones were pressed in and I used a press to press them out.

 

Thank everyone.I got a few prices from around town today and found all four for about $200. That was at O'reillys.Thanks again Jeremy Pruitt.
P.S. Dont go to a dealership I called just to get a good laugh, just to do the bottoms it was $733.39.Then the girl said she couldn't find anything about a control arm.Dumb