hello all, First time in here found it by accident while looking for some info on my truck. Been through all the posts from last year on balljoints and have decided to do it myself but still need a few questions answered.I am looking for someone that has replaced there own lower ball jointson a 1999 F-150 4WD. Have 75k on my truck and the outer tie rod ends are shot and need lower balljoints Seems up until about six months ago the lower ball joint on a 1999 F-150 4WD had to be replaced with the lower control arm but now it can be replaced seperately even though my repair manual states differently. If this is so do I still have to remove the lower control arm including the torsion bar, stabilizer link and front shock or can I just remove it where it stands. I am pretty sure I am still going to remove the whole thing. When I remove the lower control arm will be able to remove the old ball joint or is this something I will have to take and get pressed out. Also will I have to get the new one pressed back in. The upper ones aren't worn and most all state that they don't go bad but if I am going to the trouble of replacing all four tie rod ends and lower ball joints with Moog parts with grease fittings dosen't it make sense to replace the uppers get it aligned then be done with it. Also I called rockauto and they recommened replacing the lower control arm but they don't sell it. As far as shocks go can't make up my mind between Edelbrock IAS performers or the 5100 series of Bilstein. As

 

I just replaced my lowers using a pickle fork hit the top and bottom ball joints out of the spindle take off the nut on the axleshaft, wire the spindle with the brake on, up out of the way it's heavy. Rent a balljoint tool I don't know what you call it but it looks like a big C-clamp press it out and using the same tool press the new one back in. You will need a impact, they pressed out HARD!

 

thank's for the info. The way you describe it seems to be alot easier then my manual states. I just talked a mechanic were my son recently took his car and he told me the same thing. If I purchase the parts myself he would only charge me $200.00 labor and that includes alignment. Don't think that's a bad price and might just have him replace them. Thank's for answering my post anyway.

 

It's even easier than that . Most of the time you don't need the fork to get the stem out of the spindle , you take a big hammer and hit the spindle on the side where the ball joint stem goes through it and it comes right out !

 

Ok guys, you almost convinced me to do this myself but have one more question. Since this is a 4 wheel drive after I remove the hub nut does the spindle come off with all of the Automatic locking hub pieces still inside of the hub or will I have to disasemble the Automatic locking hub .

 

This replacement really isn't that hard. The only problem I had was the spindle,brake and rotor together as one piece is heavy.
Just make sure it doesn't pull on the brake line or the abs sensor wire. You could take the caliper and rotor off to make it much lighter to work with. I just left mine all together.

I used a piece of wire and wired the whole assembly up out of the way...


The hubs are always locked on these truck, Meaning the whole front drive axle assembly turns all of the time.

When you take the nut off just tap the axle out through the spindle. Pulling on the whole assembly. It is much easier with a helper but you can do it yourself if your carefull..


And to the other guy that is replacing his at 100 some thousand. Mine only had 57,000 on it and has never been in the mud or water. Kid at the parts desk shrugs his shoulders and says " it happens all the time".

 

This is a great web site wish I would have found it sooner. Thank's for the info Beardoge. It's still to cold for me to be spending 1/2 day in the garage so I'll tackle it in about another month and let use know how it went. By the was where is avoca Mich. I'm just south of Detroit. As for where to purchase them going to Rockauto.com, they seem to have the best price and the Moog parts have grease fittings, something my so called life time parts from Ford don't have.

 

Avoca 50 miles north, northeast of detroit.

Stupid me, I bought my balljoints at murry's 30 bucks a piece never looked at them until I started tearing mine apart.
the TRW replacements don't have grease fittings either. Oh but they do have a lifetime warranty..........?


So I'm thinkinnn about a 100,000 miles I'll put plugs and balljoints in the truck.. Doohhh....

 

Ok I finally got around to replacing the worn out parts any for anyone that's has never replaced them like me it really wasn't that hard. The balljoint C clamp and impact worked great in removing the lower balljoints. Also replaced both inner and outer tie rods and all four shocks with Edelbrock IAS performers. That went pretty smoth except the rear's were a real pain to remove the upper nut. Have a Question for anyone that has use moog parts. The outer tie rods had hole for grease fittings on the top of the tie rod. The inners had a hole on the side but it wasn't threaded and I couldn't screw the grease fitting into it. Am I missing something or did they forget to install threads on mine. The whole thing took about 10 hours and I saved myself $550.00 Labor.

 

most of the time those grease fittings are self tapping.