You may want to get an alignment anyway...they were mostly off from the
factory lines. As for the ball joints, jack the truck up on one side (near
the front from the frame) and wiggle the tire in a inward/outward motion
(grab the top and bottom). If you hear a "clunking" noise, that's the ball
joints.
- Bernd
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dakota-truck@buffnet.net
[mailto:owner-dakota-truck@buffnet.net]On Behalf Of fawcett@uism.bu.edu
Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2000 4:53 PM
To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
Subject: DML: Alignment or Ball Joints?
Looking for a refresher course here... I've got around 31K miles on my '98
Kota and I've noticed it gets a little squirrelish on the roads. I've never
had an alignment done since I bought the truck but I do have the tires
rotated
religiously at every 6K miles (I also lube all ball joints and steering
linkages at every oil change).
So, how do I determine if this wander is ball joints or all I need is an
alignment? It got so bad up in NH this past week that I shifted into 4wd
full-time the rest of the week... Being in 4wd really helped and totally
eliminated the wander if that means anything.
TIA!
Tom
P.S. Ball joints or alignment are my guesses... If y'all think there is
something else I should be looking at --please pipe up!
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