suspension

anlo

Registered User
good candidate for replacement.. question is replace the whole arm or just the ball joint ? as im having the jerk to left syndrome and planning on doing strut rod bushings as well but srb dont seem bad could it be just the ball joint causing symptoms... no noise or clunks just jeer to left when applying brakes and back to right when releasing brakes...

http://i1018.photobucket.com/albums/af305/smelvintie/ballj005_zps3242d60b.jpg

http://i1018.photobucket.com/albums/af305/smelvintie/ballj007_zps6dfc70dc.jpg
 
I would recommend the ball joint itself mainly because the LCA assemblies seem to be junk. Even name brands. :( There is a tool that you can use to press the part out and in. The tool doesnt fit perfect so it takes some ingenuity to get it done, but its doable. Or take the parts to a chassis shop.
You seem to have that same back nut vs. cap nut that ive seen on another thread. id say to measure and compare the lengths and bends of both sides for sameness.
Also, try swapping things right/left like wheels, rotors, inner pads. Clean/sand the pads and rotors. Look for any grease that may be on any braking surface.

Oh, and the calipers should move freely on the pins. Buy a high quality silicon caliper grease for that. Ive used cheap stuff that gummed up. A sure sign of a sticky caliper is pads that are not the same thickness.
 
possibilities...

...for a left pull when you step on the brakes:
1. The left Strut rod bushings are bad. They may not cause a clunk. If so replace both sides. you'll be doing the R sooner than later. It also requires an alignment afterward. So no reason to spend twice on that.
2. A frozen caliper on the R. It could be frozen so that it is not working. Look for broken rubber boot, and heavy rust. Test by having a partner step on the brakes and try to turn the wheel.
That's the 2 top things. Other possibilities are worn upper inners on the R. But unlikely. It's likely not that ball jt.
 
I just ordered all new bushings for the strut rod from fordparts.com. $95.06 shipped to my house after S&H plus tax. When ordering the E9SZ3B271A bushing I noticed only one came in a pack whereas the others have 2 in a pack. My car has the same pulling issue when braking and going downhill on tight turns I could hear a clunk. I'm also replacing the LCAs with Mevotech ones that have greasable ball joints since mine are shot and the front end sounds like it is about to fall off the car.
 
I know many of the folks on here are having a great deal of luck with the Raybestos Professional Grade products.

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=1943952&cc=1140545
Hope it works out. I wonder about only a 24K warranty. My Ford (supposedly.. they could have lied) brand replacement parts were only good for about 30-40K miles :( while the OEM ones were good for well over 100K. To me, 3 year service life is not worth a dime. They should pay me instead to use parts like that. What happened to the quality?
 
I know many of the folks on here are having a great deal of luck with the Raybestos Professional Grade products.

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=1943952&cc=1140545

Be careful when ordering Raybestos professional Grade products through RockAuto. I ordered the professional grade upper control arms from them. The L/H one arrived with no threads in the hole for the grease fitting. The R/H one wasn't professional grade but the P/N on the box was correct. When I complained to Rockauto about it they told me that Raybestos "reserves the right to substitute other parts if they will fit". That's right. Pay your money, take what we send you and get stuffed. I had a huge e-mail fight with Rockauto over this. The control arms that I got differed in weight by 2 pounds. The 'customer service' guys said that once installed you can't see them so what's the big deal?
My advice ... Rockauto are not bad. Raybestos needs to be severely kicked you know where. Find what you want on line, then order them from your local auto parts store. That way money doesn't change hands until you have satifactory product in your face.
When you shop and order on line you only have the picture and description to work with. If you don't get what you ordered you then have to fight to get your money back and you WILL be out for the shipping costs. They hide behind the statement 'may not be exactly as pictured/described' after the fact.
By the way, I read every word on the Rockauto and Raybestos websites. Doesn't say anywhere that they reserve the right to send you whatever they feel like instead of what you want.
Be careful out there.
Alan
 
Be careful when ordering Raybestos professional Grade products through RockAuto. I ordered the professional grade upper control arms from them. The L/H one arrived with no threads in the hole for the grease fitting. The R/H one wasn't professional grade but the P/N on the box was correct. When I complained to Rockauto about it they told me that Raybestos "reserves the right to substitute other parts if they will fit". That's right. Pay your money, take what we send you and get stuffed. I had a huge e-mail fight with Rockauto over this. The control arms that I got differed in weight by 2 pounds. The 'customer service' guys said that once installed you can't see them so what's the big deal?
My advice ... Rockauto are not bad. Raybestos needs to be severely kicked you know where. Find what you want on line, then order them from your local auto parts store. That way money doesn't change hands until you have satifactory product in your face.
When you shop and order on line you only have the picture and description to work with. If you don't get what you ordered you then have to fight to get your money back and you WILL be out for the shipping costs. They hide behind the statement 'may not be exactly as pictured/described' after the fact.
By the way, I read every word on the Rockauto and Raybestos websites. Doesn't say anywhere that they reserve the right to send you whatever they feel like instead of what you want.
Be careful out there.
Alan

I had the same issue with RockAuto, I got sent 2 completely different upper LCAs. They would work and the boxes were both the same, but the parts inside were not the Raybestos Professional grade. I ended up returning them at my cost and bought a matching set of TRWs at the local Ford dealership
 
question

on the trw that came off ...... the inner bushing to frame of the lca seems to have more rubber on both sides. compared to all the aftermarket arms available. is this normal. maybe its an optical illusion it makes me want to just replace the ball joints only and go with it.

original :
srb014_zpsc5d4e5f8.jpg


new moog :

resize_zpse3de8b5f.jpg
 
There are many anomalies with our suspension parts today. For example. When you purchase moog lower control arms the driver side will have a nice grease fitting however the passenger side is sealed. Just because parts appear to be physically different doesn't mean they won't perform well. One thing is for certain none of the aftermarket parts appear to last as long as the oem parts. I do however have a comments on this too.

Now that our cars have aged a great deal many other components of the suspension parts are worn like struts and springs. If a vehicle has improper ride height due to worn springs (yes this goes for all of the lowered vehicles too), then the suspension angles are incorrect. This is now causing the suspension to work at angles it was not designed to do so. Think about this. On a vehicle that is sitting lower than it should due to worn springs or shorter springs the control arms are now pitched up further. When this happens the ball joint is no longer exerting pressure equally on the surface area of the socket. The pressure is moved toward one side of the socket increasing the psi of pressures. So instead of exerting the force equally across the entire socket the pressure is moved to on side. We can already agree our cars are heavy and the ball joints arguably undersized. That being said these joints need all of the help they can get. Ie operating at the correct ride height. That is one issue.

The other is worn shocks. When we replace suspension components with worn or aging shocks. The suspension is now traveling up and down more often than it did when new thus causing more frequent movement and this will wear suspension components prematurely as well.

Oh btw I didn't even get into how improper ride height will also wear our hub and bearing assemblies prematurely as that will also affect how force is exerted on those.

Before we start blaming poor manufacturing of suspension components we should be certain the often neglected areas of suspensions are in good working order. And I am sorry for all of you folks using lowering springs, you need to accept the fact that your suspension components are going to wear prematurely.

Btw the proper way to lower a vehicle is to use drop spindles which no one manufactures for our cars. This enables all of the suspension angles to remain the same while still lowering the vehicle. Springs are not the preferred method. It is however the easiest and least expensive.
 
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I think youll be OK with the new bushing style; however, you could just order a new bushing and have it pressed in along with a new balljoint. The shock bushings dont really wear out. Heres what the Moog balljoint unit looks like.
 

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In the OEM type arm, yes. Its pressed in. You can replace it on the car with the proper tool. Looks like a huge C clamp. Or take it the arm and parts to an alignment shop.
 
It's call a ballpoint press. Yes it does look like a large c clamp. The kit from OTC is the best out there.

If it is serviceable you can usually hammer the old one out then press the new one back in.

That's good to know. Makes me feel bad about throwing out the original control arms. You are right on the strut mount bushings never seem to wear.
 
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