I have a 2004.5 dodge ram 2500 quad cab 4X4 diesel with 190000 km on it now. truck is awsome. My steering wheel is off a bit but truck drives str8 and good. so i took it in for wheel alignment and they said all the ball joints r shot. tonight i will jack truck up and see if tire moves but what do u think? has any1 replaced them yet themselves or tooken it to dealership and what costs am i looking at? did the new ones come with grease nipples?Any other way to check them too see if vthey r bad?

 

With the tire off the ground, grab the wheel at 6 and 12 and shake like crazy. If you hear any clunking or feel any free play they are bad. Same thing happened to me and I didn't really fell any play but took the alignment shop's word for it. Sure enough, both lowers were loose. It's a time consuming job, but not that difficult. Remove wheel, remove brakes/caliper/rotor, unbolt hub and remove (took me a long time to get it loose), pull out axle shaft, remove ball joint retaining nuts, remove spindle. I had to use a floor jack to press out the top ball joint (with some heat from a torch), and had to use a ball joint press to remove the bottom one (rented it from autozone). I got new ball joints from napa, and yes they are greasable.

 

ok ill check them out on the weekend. I was quoted $710.00 canadian for the parts NOT INCLUDING LABOR yet. Crazy isnt it?(all 4 ball joints)

 

i had my dealership replace all 4 of mine with MOOG greasable ball joints. Parts and labor was right at $1000. It is do-able at home with good tools, but it would take alot of time and it doesn't always go easy. I simply didn't have any free time to try it myself and it was driving me crazy, so that is why i had the dealer do it.