2001 4x4 Dakota
My front tyres were worn funny, back ones look ok. Got about 27K miles on
them. So in to the local NTB for some new fronts and an alignment check. The
truck does have a slight pull when driving, so I figure the alignment is
probably off a little.
Looking at the tyres, the guy says he thinks it's alignment and probably the
shocks are bad. With 120K miles on the truck, and no idea how old the shocks
are, this seems a reasonable diagnosis to me.
I get a call later. The tyres are done, but they can't do the alignment.
Shocks are bad (no surprise there), but they also want to replace the upper
and lower ball joints because they're bad. I told them to finish the tyres,
hold off on the alignment, and I'll take care of the ball joints and shocks
myself. Later, when I picked it up, I'm told that the lowers are bad, but that
I might as well replace the uppers at the same time (so the uppers are not
bad?).
Tonight, I pulled the truck in to the garage to have a look. Front wheels off,
visual inspection, nothing looks obviously bad about the ball joints. The
seals are intact, no damage or signs of grease or anything like that. The
shocks are, as you'd expect, old and rusty looking.
I checked the FSM for the ball joint testing procedure. I don't have a dial
indicator, but I'm assuming that if the dial indicator were here and showing
1.5mm or more play in the joint that I'd at least be able to detect some play
in it. Maybe not an exact diagnosis (is 1.4mm ok, but 1.5mm is bad?), but at
least an indication that there's a problem. With the wheels on, pushing in all
directions on them, I can't detect any play in the ball joints. There's what
seems like a little bit of play in the steering rack, pushing and pulling on
the front and back of the tyre, but no play at all pushing and pulling on the
top and bottom.
So now I'm wondering if somebody's trying to snow me here. If the joints are
actually bad, shouldn't there be some perceptible play in them? I don't have a
truck with a known bad one to compare it to.
If they're actually bad, it looks like the upper shouldn't be a big deal. One
castle nut and three bolts to remove it. I've read in the archives that a
pickle fork will work instead of having to have Mopar's special removal tool.
But looking at the lower, I don't see how that can be removed. At least not
removed in my garage.
NAPA's web site lists a bolt in lower, and a press in lower. I have the press
in lower ball joint. I don't know what the bolt in lower fits, but there's
nothing on mine to bolt it to. There's nothing in the FSM about actually
removing the lower ball joint. So does that mean I'd need a whole new lower
arm? Or is this something a shop with a press can remove the ball joint and
press a new one in place?
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