Ball joints

[Ole BlackBetty]

So I took ol black Betty in today and got some new shoes on her. I had Hibdons do a front end alignment check to see if anything was needed. They said upper and lower ball joints are a little worn , not to bad be need to changed to stop unwanted wear on new tires. The quoted about $900.00 to do this job!
My question is how hard are they to change, I have sone alot of mechanical work in my day, even changed the ball joints years ago on a ford mercury marque. But better is 4x4 so how hard is it?

 

[KansasIDI]

So I took ol black Betty in today and got some new shoes on her. I had Hibdons do a front end alignment check to see if anything was needed. They said upper and lower ball joints are a little worn , not to bad be need to changed to stop unwanted wear on new tires. The quoted about $900.00 to do this job!
My question is how hard are they to change, I have sone alot of mechanical work in my day, even changed the ball joints years ago on a ford mercury marque. But better is 4x4 so how hard is it?

It’s easy. If you’ve done it in a 2WD, that’s hardly less difficult than 4WD. You got this.

 

[IDIBOBS]

Is your truck a 350 or 250? Did you say it’s 4x4? What year?

 

[KansasIDI]

Regardless of whether it’s a 350 or 250, it should be quite easy. That doesn’t change much, other than caster and camber being more difficult on the 250s. A 4WD 350 is trivially easy.

 

[KansasIDI]

Is your truck a 350 or 250? Did you say it’s 4x4? What year?

I believe it’s a 1994 F350 4WD. That’s what the signature suggests.

 

[IDIBOBS]

If it’s a 350 and 4x4 it doesn’t even have ball joints. It would be a dana60 king pin. Thats why I asked. As far as price I usually charge $100 each so $400 plus parts for ball joints. So $900 seams really steep.

 

[asmith]

I have a '93 F350 with the Dana 60 front end and it has ball joints. I forget what year they changed from kingpins to ball joints, but it was before 1993.
now maybe the dually has a king pin since somebody swapped it in.

 

[KansasIDI]

1991 was the last year for kingpins.
1992-1994 have balljoints
1995-1997 have huge balljoints

 

[Black dawg]

What all are they including with doing the ball joints?
Ball joints are 2-250 + 4-6 hours labor depending on what all it needs.
Bearing pack?
Spindle kits?
U joints?
Axle seals? Crazy to pull axles out of a truck this age and hope the old seals dont leak after.....
Price adds up crazy fast any more.....

 

[rreegg]

Am still waking up but will you need an alignment again after ball joint work?

 

[Nero]

Am still waking up but will you need an alignment again after ball joint work?

Yes you will.

 

[Ole BlackBetty]

This is the quote

 

[Nero]

If you minus off the cost of the shocks R&R and parts, the ball joint replacement cost seems fair to me. You can do the shocks yourself they're a piece of cake and not necessary for it to align correctly.

 

[u2slow]

The hardest thing about the job is if the spindles are seized into the knuckles.

1992-1994 have balljoints
1995-1997 have huge balljoints

These use the same balljoints. It's the brakes that improved for '95.

 

[KansasIDI]

The hardest thing about the job is if the spindles are seized into the knuckles.


These use the same balljoints. It's the brakes that improved for '95.

Ah. Yes, that makes more sense. I was aware that the brakes were bigger, but for some reason thought the ball joints were different. But no. My apologies for the misinformation.