Can't beat RockAuto.com I only buy from that place when I need replacement parts!

 

The needle (you use it on a regular grease gun, it has the ball on the needle) works fine, just need to take a heat lamp or gun and warm it up before hand, it'll come out fine. I checked my joints (the rubber boot) early on on my '04 and also early on my brothers '07 and neither one of them feel like they have any grease in them. Feel hollow. Wonder if that's Fords Method to Madness to sell lots of front end parts. I would like to drill and tap mine and install zerks. Don't know if the grease would flow out like it should when they weren't made for zerks.

 

Sadly it's not just Ford's method of madness to have sealed components like that.

 

yah you can drill them out, just make sure you use a drill press so you dont go too deep and damage the joint itself

 

...Or leave metal shavings in there.

I don't know if I'd do that though with older stuff. My truck is only 5 years old and the rubber boots were already all starting to dry rot.

 

yah i agree stealth, you need to do it in the first year or so to make it worth the effort. Because you would need to disassemble everything to get at the joints and at that point you might as well replace them if they are a couple years old

 

Good thread. Very helpful. Went to the shop today to get an alignment. They said my tie rod was bad. Can't remember inner or outer but wanted 200 for parts and labor. I think this is an easy fix and can do myself. Just gotta order parts and wait for them to come in.

 

...Do you have to replace the rod ends and upper links, or is it just easier to do it that way? I know some vehicles ball joints can be pressed in/out...

 

The entire upper control arm has to be replaced when the upper control ball joint goes bad, which isn't a bad thing.

 

I just bought some new uppers off ebay. Although they arent Moog, Im on a budget and found factory replacements for only $52/a piece. Found some lowers a few months back for only $25 shipped. They still have a ton more if anyone is interested and I got them really fast. The sellers name is autopartsdirect2you, now I just need to find time to swap them out.

 

Stealth, true, thanks, Greg

 

I used the grease syringe method and it just caused my boot to explode.... They have had no boot for about 6 months now and are still fine but I was not happy when that happened..

 

What type of noise will this do on turns, mine has a bad grinding nice on a slow turn mostly in parking lots. Changing the ball joints will solve the problem? I have 2004 lariat lowered with 24"

 

I imagine you saved a ton of money doing it yourself. Dealers like to drain that $$$ from ya

On a side note, too bad ya'll didn't take some pics of the two of your trucks together...would've been a sick photoshoot with two very nice trucks

 

Nice stuff! I too had uneven tire wear and an alignment couldn't be done. I opted for the Camburg Uni-ball setup since I have heavy tires and am offroad often. The stock ball joints really are the weak point of the suspension.