I can't remember which thread I saw the subject in but wanted to let everyone know the outcome. I have a 99 Expy with 5.4L with rear LLS. I have not had alot of problems with my front tires wearing funny but when I read the other day that the ball joints usually start to go between 40 and 80 K miles so I was a little concerned since I have 109000 on my original suspension. I went to two different Firestone garages and got two very different prices. One (next to my office) was alittle over $800 to replace the upper control arms that was for parts and labor this was about a month ago. And the Firestone that is near my house was a little over $500 for parts and labor which was last weekend. And I had over 1/4" of play in them but lower ball joints were fine as well as the tie rod ends. So what I did was go buy the parts at $69 each (bot firestone quoted $118 ea) a hanyes manual $14 and a ball joint remover (fork type) and went and got my dads hydraulic jack. I read the manual for about 15 min. Which explains in good detail how to remove and replace the upper control arms. I have changed suspesion parts in the past on other vehicles and i do have a quite a bit mechanical skills (out of nessecity) but I am no mechanic. The hardest part about changing the control arms is removing the wheels and putting them back on. The entire job including reading the book took 2 hours and if i would have been paying attention would have taken 15 minute less but I ran the ABS sensor line through the control arm on one side instead of over it. So I had to take that one back off. The only tools I needed other than the jack and 4 way lug wrench was a 21mm wrench and deep well socket. So if you can when you go to replace yours get more than one quote and consider doing it yourself if you have the tools. Good luck

 

where did you get the arms for 69 bucks?

 

Pep-Boys and Auto-Zone also had them at the same price. My luck they will go out quicker but it was a fast and cheap fix. I was pushing my luck with the old ones.

 

did you do an alignment yourself too?

 

No it shows you how to mark the pivot bolts in the Haynes manual. I am replacing tires this week so I was going to get it done at the same time as the tires. I was able to set it pretty close (I think) because I have put on about 1500 miles and the tires are not wearing real bad and they already had alittle over 60k on them.