The way to check your ball joints is to use a floor jack to jack up each front
wheel one at a time. Place the floor jack under the control arm so no load is
on the ball joint and raise until the tire is off the ground. Then firmly
grasp the tire (usually at the bottom) and try to move it from side to side.
(As if you are trying to pull the wheel off...not in the direction that it
would move when turning. You are trying to fight the ball joint here to check
its free play. You have to give it some serious oomph as you are trying to
move the weight of the wheel, tire, brake and spidle, and upper control
arm..) It is good to try and do this under the car while looking at the ball
joint. There should be no more than 2/32's of an inch in free play. (That is
the rule in most states for state inspections) If you see side play in the
balljoint that equates to more than the width of a dime then they should be
replaced. Torsion bar front suspentions tend to force the lower ball joint to
carry the bulk of the weight and it is common for the lower ones to need
replacing more often than the upper ones.
---------- previous post -----------
Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 08:24:18 -0500
From: flemingb@vtls.com
Subject: DML: Ball Joints
-- snip---
Is there a simple way to know for sure if it is a bad ball joint?
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