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check of ball joints.

G

glsaved

CEG'er
Joined
Feb 20, 2010
Messages
229
Location
Indy, IN
hard to tell where it is coming from exactly, but noise out of the suspention front end.
Difficult to describe, except it is hard to duplicate.

The main thing I wanted to make sure is the ball joints in the front are not going to fall apart. Yes, they will need replaced as the grease boot is torn on both sides. I just spray some oil in there every few days so it is not completely dry.

What I did was jack up the front of the car at the jacking points (not on the control arms), no load on the front wheels, and grip the tires at 12:00 and 6:00 positions and tried to rock them. No movement, even kicked the tired a couple times and tried again - no movement.

Would this be a sufficient test to see that the ball joints are not going to break? I take the highway daily and would hate for one to come loose on the highway. IN driving, it rides smooth, no shaking or anything and turns smooth.

They have never been replaced, they are riveted in. 1996. I guess replacement ones require bolts so I know these are original. 185,000 miles on the odometer.
Yes I do plan on replacing them, just don't have the $$$ at the moment. Would they probably be safe for a while? Did I test them properly?
 
$20 @ autozone. How is this not affordable? ripped boots means dirt and grim end up in there. this could be making a squeek sound if there is sand or even dirt in them. cut 'em out and replace, it's time. they should be retired.
 
You need to pretty much manhandle the tire to find the looseness. 12 and 6 o'clock for BOTH bearing and balljoint, you can tell bearing and tie rod at 9 and 3. I pulled my '98 LCAs and found the boots torn but joints still super tight at 150K, replaced all 4 LCA bushings and the boots, car rides perfect after the job. Maybe I don't hotdog my ride as much as others but if the joint has virtually no wear at 150K it should be good for quite a bit more..................

I long ago drilled a small hole in the bottom of joint(s) to lube it anytime I am under it. The lube itself will plug the hole once a bit of dirt mixes with it. Contrary to belief, the splash from rain does not seem to get inside the joint if 90% of it still covered up. Ball itself had absolutely no rust on it at all and still tight in socket, not all floppy loose like they get when worn.
 
It sounds to me like your ball joints are fine. Let me ask you, when you hear the noise does it sound like something banging around when you go over a bump? Almost like there's a piece of metal hitting another piece of metal and then it goes away? I have a feeling there's something wrong or broken with the strut. My rear right strut is busted. It sounds like something bouncing around in the trunk whenever I go over a bump I thought it might be the bearing. So I jacked the car up and tried the same test and it was rock solid. That was until I went to set the car down. I put about have the weight on the tire and shook the car. When I did this I could see and hear that something was loose at the top of the strut. You might have the same thing with the front. An easy thing to check is the mounting bolt on top of the strut tower under the hood. Make sure it hasn't come loose.
 
When my passenger ball joint went out, it was easiest to duplicate the movement by gripping the wheel at 10:30 and 4:30 (right in between 12/6 and 9/3), because when a ball joint goes out, it will rotate really easily, and the resting place will be pointing directly out to the side, and when you grab it to move it, it's either going to move straight to the forward position of straight to the rearward position. so I suggest grabbing between 12/6 and 9/3 to test for the ball joint (10:30/4:30 or 1:30/7:30).
 
something to keep in mind is that with 185K miles on them the LCA bushings are almost guaranteed to be shot. with it jacked up grab the wheel at the back near the fender and push and pull it parallel to the car. if the LCAs much, which im sure they will, the bushings are bad. I would suggest replacing the whole LCA as you get new bushings and a new ball joint.

if you are getting a clunk going over bumps then check out the sway bar mounting bushings and the endlinks, especially the rear endlinks.
 
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