Ball joint on one of my upper control arms has about 1/4" play when moving wheel in the 9 and 3 and 6 and 12 positions so will change the upper control arm - mine are aluminum on both sides, can I have a steel on one side and aluminum on the other? Did the 2002's come with aluminum and steel types or why are there 2 types?

 

Play at 6 and 12 position is ball joint, 9 and 3 positions indicate looseness in steering components.
I don't think you will notice a difference between alum or steel when driving. Bushing quality will affect road feedback and handling more than control arm composition.
If you live in an area prone to rust, then aluminum would be a great choice.
Aluminum is as strong as steel and about 1/3 the weight. Chevy uses alum components in the Z71 so it can handle offroad also.
Definitely get one with the ball joint installed, alum control arms usually have special fittings to prevent excessive wear from steel components.

 

Thought that on the 9-3 position as well but only movement is on the ball joint when moving in those directions, steering and tie rods seem fine. Ball joint has lots of play.

Will get the upper arm with ball joint already installed for sure.

 

On the 4WD 3rd Gen Rams with the torsion bars, is there any need to put a jack under the lower control arm when removing the ball joint bolt? Just wondering if the rest of the assembly will drop suddenly or not.

 

I"m assuming that you will have the truck on a lift or jack stands, with the wheel hanging.
The spindle will not drop when you break the upper ball joint free. The spindle is at full travel and the shock is holding it.
How do you plan on breaking the ball joint free? There are several ways and I'm just curious as to how you are going to do it.
Are you replacing upper control arms/ball joint only?

 

Will try a hammer to hit control arm beside ball joint and have a pickle fork if that doesn't work. And yes, upper control arm with ball joint already pressed in is all I'm changing as everything else is good.

 

Do the upper control arms on the 4WD 2002 Ram have adjustment for alignment? Just wondering if I need to mark the position of bolts in relation to bracket or not like on some Pickups.

 

I’ll answer my own question for reference for others since I found out the answer while doing the swap - Yes they have adjustment so you need to make marks on the 2 pivot bolts location in relation to the bracket so alignment will not be out when you install the new control arm. Redram drives and handles great now, went with a Pro OEM aluminum one.

 

Took a turn out of the parking lot today, hear a pop, and RedRam felt like the brakes were applied - Drivers side upper ball joint broke and wheel collapsed inward. Thankfully I was going slow and there was no traffic, wouldn't have been nice to have it go when I got on the highway I imagine. New aluminum control arm with ball joint will be installed this weekend, hopefully as easy as the passenger side was.

 

Maybe you should go with steel vs aluminum, if going aftermarket. You lose total control when that thing breaks.

This is what I used when doing ball joints. Sorry for the big *** pic.