It will affect handling, to an extent, whether it will be noticeable or not, likely not.

 

The control arm being aluminum had no relation to the ball joint coming apart. It would be the same ball joint if the arm itself steel or aluminum. These things can't be greased. It appears that there is no grease on the inside of the joint. On components that do not have grease fittings, I will often use a grease needle and poke a small hole with it and grease the components.

 

In this case it being aluminum does seem to have played a factor in the failure - Looking at it closely today, the aluminum on the inner 1/4 of the cup the ball sat in broke off and then the ball slipped out. Looking into the Aluminum vs Steel for the arm, aluminum is more subject to being affected for highs and lows of temps and don't think steel would fail like this aluminum did with a piece braking off around the cup (circled in orange). In any case, this ball joint/control arm looks quite old, plastic cup that was around the ball was worn on the inside, and no grease inside at all. You grease needle method is good for these non greaseable ball joints :

 

That is worn badly from no lubrication. From the looks of the ball, It would had still pulled out and worn down the top side, even if steel.

 

Yeah, that's a pretty bad failure. So it was aluminum with plastic cup. Definitely lost all the grease and looks like dirt and water got up in it.

I don't believe these arms flex, they just travel up and down. I'd trust Moog over Dorman any day of the week, although they are all made in China nowadays. I'd also trust steel over aluminum. Yes, they would both eventually fail in such a situation as you have there, but the steel would have probably worn down at a much slower rate and probably not break off like it did there. Grease needle is a good idea... I use one myself. Try to massage the grease up after you inject it.

 

Was definately an old ball joint in there, well past its prime. In hindsight will change these out in pairs next time if I don't know the history of the truck and I will only go with the steel with a grease nipple as well from now on, no more aluminum non greasable for me.

I did go back and exchange the aluminum for the steel one which comes with a grease nipple - it's actually a rebranded SKP, (p/n SRK74240 and not a Moog like I originally thought, an economy part but that's all they had available in my area and need RedRam on the road tomorrow for work.

 

Sounds like you did good, man. With a grease nipple you can make it last indefinitely. Hope you pumped some grease in as sometimes those parts come dry.