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ball joint pricing
Jeep and Willys Vehicles Discussions on Jeep and Willys vehicles. (rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys)
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#11
 
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Re: ball joint pricing -
11-18-2006
, 02:44 PM
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Mike Romain wrote: You can tell the shape of the ball joints 'usually' by using your eye and looking from the front or a level. If the tires are tilted out either at the bottom or top, you have one or more bad ball joints on that tire. Wandering can be from a worn tie rod end or even a sloppy u-joint on the steering column just by the firewall. You can lay under while someone pins the steering side to side while you watch all the moving joints for slop. Either side to side slop, or up and down slop. Not enough to in can also make it wander. You can check that with a tape measure as mentioned earlier. I'll also add that simply horking on the tire with your arms is not enough force to make a worn balljoint move. Unless of course the balljoint is well and truly broken. Not even Hulk Hogan can put as much force on the balljoints than your vehicle can in a turn. Replaced the inner tierod to drag link balljoint because it was pointed out to me by the folks at Tires Plus (had the ZJ in for a rotation and free check). The only way to detect the problem was to use "chassis ears" (electronic version of the mechanics stethoscope) and turn the wheels under power while they were clamped down. Then you could defiantly hear the pop/sucking noise. End result is my ZJ became a lot more stable on the road. So much so that I sat dumbfounded on how less than 3/100 of slop could make such a difference. (Yes, I checked and the alignment didn't change)  Reminds self: need to price that tool out. Very cool. |
#12
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On Sat, 18 Nov 2006 11:37:50 -0600, DougW wrote: Mike Romain wrote: You can tell the shape of the ball joints 'usually' by using your eye and looking from the front or a level. If the tires are tilted out either at the bottom or top, you have one or more bad ball joints on that tire. Wandering can be from a worn tie rod end or even a sloppy u-joint on the steering column just by the firewall. You can lay under while someone pins the steering side to side while you watch all the moving joints for slop. Either side to side slop, or up and down slop. Not enough to in can also make it wander. You can check that with a tape measure as mentioned earlier. I'll also add that simply horking on the tire with your arms is not enough force to make a worn balljoint move. Unless of course the balljoint is well and truly broken. Not even Hulk Hogan can put as much force on the balljoints than your vehicle can in a turn. Replaced the inner tierod to drag link balljoint because it was pointed out to me by the folks at Tires Plus (had the ZJ in for a rotation and free check). The only way to detect the problem was to use "chassis ears" (electronic version of the mechanics stethoscope) and turn the wheels under power while they were clamped down. Then you could defiantly hear the pop/sucking noise. End result is my ZJ became a lot more stable on the road. So much so that I sat dumbfounded on how less than 3/100 of slop could make such a difference. (Yes, I checked and the alignment didn't change) Reminds self: need to price that tool out. Very cool. You can pretty much the same result for free. Get a helper to sit behind the wheel. Slide under the front and wrap your hand around the tie rod ends. Have the helper turn the wheel back and forth - not too far, just to the point where they feel the full resistance. Any slop in the tie rod ends will be easily felt. Same thing works for any ball and socket setup, but the ball joints and the trackbar are a little hard to get hold of. |
#13
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So, sre there any symptoms of bad ball joints you can feel when driving?? I have had NTB tell me I need new ones, and a local mechanic tell me that they were fine. Dont know who to believe, maybe a third opinion??? |
where a good mechanic is in the buisness of keeping your buisness by
not screwing you over. I'd get a third opinion.
--
DougW
#14
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So, sre there any symptoms of bad ball joints you can feel when driving?? I have had NTB tell me I need new ones, and a local mechanic tell me that they were fine. Dont know who to believe, maybe a third opinion??? Will Honea wrote: On Sat, 18 Nov 2006 11:37:50 -0600, DougW wrote: Mike Romain wrote: You can tell the shape of the ball joints 'usually' by using your eye and looking from the front or a level. If the tires are tilted out either at the bottom or top, you have one or more bad ball joints on that tire. Wandering can be from a worn tie rod end or even a sloppy u-joint on the steering column just by the firewall. You can lay under while someone pins the steering side to side while you watch all the moving joints for slop. Either side to side slop, or up and down slop. Not enough to in can also make it wander. You can check that with a tape measure as mentioned earlier. I'll also add that simply horking on the tire with your arms is not enough force to make a worn balljoint move. Unless of course the balljoint is well and truly broken. Not even Hulk Hogan can put as much force on the balljoints than your vehicle can in a turn. Replaced the inner tierod to drag link balljoint because it was pointed out to me by the folks at Tires Plus (had the ZJ in for a rotation and free check). The only way to detect the problem was to use "chassis ears" (electronic version of the mechanics stethoscope) and turn the wheels under power while they were clamped down. Then you could defiantly hear the pop/sucking noise. End result is my ZJ became a lot more stable on the road. So much so that I sat dumbfounded on how less than 3/100 of slop could make such a difference. (Yes, I checked and the alignment didn't change) Reminds self: need to price that tool out. Very cool. You can pretty much the same result for free. Get a helper to sit behind the wheel. Slide under the front and wrap your hand around the tie rod ends. Have the helper turn the wheel back and forth - not too far, just to the point where they feel the full resistance. Any slop in the tie rod ends will be easily felt. Same thing works for any ball and socket setup, but the ball joints and the trackbar are a little hard to get hold of. |
#15
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When I had one recently go bad, the steering would 'jam' up when turning right not wanting to come back straight unless I overcorrected with the steering wheel, then it reached a 'hump' point and came back really fast. The joint had surprisingly little play, but there was enough that the grease boot had fallen off. If NTB is a chain store and the 'mechanic' is a 'real' one not one of these idiot technicians that only knows what a computer tells 'em, then I would believe the mechanic. Mike bspear78 wrote: So, sre there any symptoms of bad ball joints you can feel when driving?? I have had NTB tell me I need new ones, and a local mechanic tell me that they were fine. Dont know who to believe, maybe a third opinion??? Will Honea wrote: On Sat, 18 Nov 2006 11:37:50 -0600, DougW wrote: Mike Romain wrote: You can tell the shape of the ball joints 'usually' by using your eye and looking from the front or a level. If the tires are tilted out either at the bottom or top, you have one or more bad ball joints on that tire. Wandering can be from a worn tie rod end or even a sloppy u-joint on the steering column just by the firewall. You can lay under while someone pins the steering side to side while you watch all the moving joints for slop. Either side to side slop, or up and down slop. Not enough to in can also make it wander. You can check that with a tape measure as mentioned earlier. I'll also add that simply horking on the tire with your arms is not enough force to make a worn balljoint move. Unless of course the balljoint is well and truly broken. Not even Hulk Hogan can put as much force on the balljoints than your vehicle can in a turn. Replaced the inner tierod to drag link balljoint because it was pointed out to me by the folks at Tires Plus (had the ZJ in for a rotation and free check). The only way to detect the problem was to use "chassis ears" (electronic version of the mechanics stethoscope) and turn the wheels under power while they were clamped down. Then you could defiantly hear the pop/sucking noise. End result is my ZJ became a lot more stable on the road. So much so that I sat dumbfounded on how less than 3/100 of slop could make such a difference. (Yes, I checked and the alignment didn't change) Reminds self: need to price that tool out. Very cool. You can pretty much the same result for free. Get a helper to sit behind the wheel. Slide under the front and wrap your hand around the tie rod ends. Have the helper turn the wheel back and forth - not too far, just to the point where they feel the full resistance. Any slop in the tie rod ends will be easily felt. Same thing works for any ball and socket setup, but the ball joints and the trackbar are a little hard to get hold of. |
#16
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My XJ tracks straight and the wheels don't look tilted. The only thing it does weird is once in a while there is a sort of "chunk" that sounds like it's coming from the front, most often when backing up. There is no funny tire wear either. |
I had a series of pop-pop-pop-pop-pop every time I stopped or
accelerated. Turned out to be the top control arm bolt on the
driver side. Just wasn't tight enough and was slipping
just a teeny bit. Amazing how much noise it made for how little
room there is to move.
--
DougW
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