I recently purchased a 06 Ram Big Horn. It only has around 55K on it and when I had new rubber put on it I checked over the joints and brakes to see what was needed or would be needed to be replaced. I'm kinda of a perfectionist and I always maintain my vehicle's to fullest extent and usually well before the maintenance schedule says to. During the inspection I noticed the lower ball joints and tie-rod ends had already been replaced with moog's. I've heard about Dodge's joint issues and new that going into the purchase. I was happy with the part choices because that's what I would have used but I noticed the upper ball joints had not been replaced and the drivers side was in bad shape. I went to the parts store and purchased what I though was the correct part and after pressing out the factory's and pressing in the new moog's the stud would not go through the mounting hole in the knuckle. I pressed them back out and returned back to the parts store where the informed me there was two different parts for different cab configuration's and the ones I got where for extended cabs or mega-cab, not the extended crew or regular cab. Not sure about that, but the other part shown for the extended crew had a smaller diameter stud on it which made since but O.D. of the joint was much smaller and basically dropped in the control arm which was obviously not right. The only other option was to order a moog complete control arm assembly that come's with the ball joint and frame bushings installed. Not a big deal since they returned my original part that was wrong and the complete control arm part is only about $25 more per side but I won't get them until Wed. Has anybody heard of this or is this normal or what? I've been a Ford guy and this my first Dodge since 95 and I didn't have it long enough to have to fix much. Any input couldn't hurt.

Matt

 

Did you originally buy just the ball joint itself for the upper? I can't speak for the 06s but my 02 the upper ball joint was sold as a complete assy with the upper control arm. I'm pretty sure most of the trucks are like that from what I've read on here, but I'm not sure if and how they changed the suspension parts for the later models.

 

Correct. Upper ball joints come in the upper control arms and sold and replaced as one un unit. What moog part number did you buy?

 

Part number is moog k7460. According to moogs website and the part stores computer this is the correct part. Moog's website say nothing about cab configuration or having to replace the factory control arm with there's. I'm thinking that's what's going on is that once you replace the factory control arm then you could use the this particular ball joint if needed. I'm just not sure why that's not listed in the parts books or on there website. I believe the k7460's where the first ones in which the stud was to big and didn't go through the knuckle. I can't remember the part number of second set that had the correct shaft diameter but the joint O.D. was wrong.

 

www.rockauto.com > dodge > 2006 > ram slt > 5.7 > suspension > control arm

 

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rockauto also shows the replacement ball joint only also with no mention of the control arm having to be replaced. They do offer the control arm assembly as another way of fixing the problem but make no mention that the ball joint won't fit a factory control arm.

 

yes they do have but if you cant cross reference them on moogs site then i wouldnt trust it

 

Matt that Moog part number is for a 4x4 upper ball joint. You didn't say if it was 4x4 or 4x2. 4x2 requires a whole upper control arm I believe. The only upper for a 4x2 that Rockauto lists is a Raybestos 5001134.

 

It's a 4x4. Sorry, I forgot to mention that.