Lets talk joints...

cableguymn · Feb 14, 2012

Ball Joints that is. Since I bought my van in August of last year I've done nothing exciting. Replaced the trans when it failed, the radiator when it leaked and the front brakes when the calipers hung up.

I've been on the hunt for a new van but have come to the realization that I am not finding what I am looking for, and likely won't until Murphy's law kicks in. That means I have to fix up the one I have for the next one to come along. If I wait and let this one goes to pieces it'll do just that and I'll have to settle for something.

When I got the van it had new tires on it. Still had the blue on the white letters. Since then I have kept an eye on them because tires are expensive.

Past few weeks I have seen some edge wear on them so I got the trusty floor jack out and checked the front end. (let me qualify this, it's been checked and marked "ok" buy 4 'shops' "

What I found amazed me. Once unloaded there was 1" of side to side play in the left upper and 1/2" in the right upper.

What I found more shocking was the lowers where tight and good, as where all the rod ends. The upper and lower joints are OEM. This van just turned 265,000 miles.

Seems she went a long way on the OE ball joints. I suspect the uppers failed because they where dryer than a popcorn fart when the van was first brought in for maintenance. Quick lubes always ignore the zerks they are not easy to find.

Since I bought it I ask "how many fittings did you grease?" when they come up with the wrong number I tell um to keep looking. I never give them the right answer until they come up with it themselves.

BobWolf · Feb 14, 2012

As a Former mechanic The only suspention parts I recomend are TRW, MOOG, National, or Raybestos or if you have a Car Quest or NAPA their parts are made by a quality manufacturer. Good Quality and easy warrantee if you need to trade them out. Spend the extra couple bucks for the parts with grease fittings and keep them lubed

STAY AWAY FROM AUTOZONE DURALAST BRANDED THIER PARTS ARE JUNK ALWAYS ON RECALL!! Just look at the posters on the front doors at the stores for catastrophic failure.

The most improtant part is keeping them lubed. Castrol makes an exelent product called Pyroplex blue abbout 4 bucks a tube. You can get it at any NAPA or an oil and lube distributor. Verry tacky and holds up all day .
I run a interantional 4300 with air brakes and my first lube was in October Last week I finaly hit the grease fittings with abbout 17,000 miles I monitored it weekly to make sure I had lube. Still had lube on the stering u joints, nice sticky plugs on all the fittings kept them lubed and clear except for the drive shaft those fittings were dusty but clear.
Im told I can go 25,000 on a lube but Ill still lube closer to 12,000- 15,000 miles compared to 3000 miles with other lubes. If you chose to push your lubes make sure you have at least two good lubes at 3000 miles to purge out the old lube and only the pyroplex is in the parts keep track of your joints to make sure they are not getting dry.
Thats my two cents, feel free to E mail me if you have any questions. good luck.
Bob Wolf.

[email protected]

stonewolf · Feb 14, 2012

BobWolf said:
As a Former mechanic The only suspention parts I recomend are TRW, MOOG, National, or Raybestos or if you have a Car Quest or NAPA their parts are made by a quality manufacturer. Good Quality and easy warrantee if you need to trade them out. Spend the extra couple bucks for the parts with grease fittings and keep them lubed

STAY AWAY FROM AUTOZONE DURALAST BRANDED THIER PARTS ARE JUNK ALWAYS ON RECALL!! Just look at the posters on the front doors at the stores for catastrophic failure.

The most improtant part is keeping them lubed. Castrol makes an exelent product called Pyroplex blue abbout 4 bucks a tube. You can get it at any NAPA or an oil and lube distributor. Verry tacky and holds up all day .
I run a interantional 4300 with air brakes and my first lube was in October Last week I finaly hit the grease fittings with abbout 17,000 miles I monitored it weekly to make sure I had lube. Still had lube on the stering u joints, nice sticky plugs on all the fittings kept them lubed and clear except for the drive shaft those fittings were dusty but clear.
Im told I can go 25,000 on a lube but Ill still lube closer to 12,000- 15,000 miles compared to 3000 miles with other lubes. If you chose to push your lubes make sure you have at least two good lubes at 3000 miles to purge out the old lube and only the pyroplex is in the parts keep track of your joints to make sure they are not getting dry.
Thats my two cents, feel free to E mail me if you have any questions. good luck.
Bob Wolf.
[email protected]

lol find a tech that like autozone parts and you have found a rip off artist lol all good advise ... if the lowers are still original you may want to go ahead and do them to since you have to remove the knuckle any ways and you will probably find that once ita apart the lowers may be lose just not have a bunch of play in them ... i grease every frount joint on every oil change i do pyro plex is amaseing stuff and gose a long way

cableguymn · Feb 14, 2012

BobWolf said:
As a Former mechanic The only suspention parts I recomend are TRW, MOOG, National, or Raybestos or if you have a Car Quest or NAPA their parts are made by a quality manufacturer. Good Quality and easy warrantee if you need to trade them out. Spend the extra couple bucks for the parts with grease fittings and keep them lubed

STAY AWAY FROM AUTOZONE DURALAST BRANDED THIER PARTS ARE JUNK ALWAYS ON RECALL!! Just look at the posters on the front doors at the stores for catastrophic failure.

The most improtant part is keeping them lubed. Castrol makes an exelent product called Pyroplex blue abbout 4 bucks a tube. You can get it at any NAPA or an oil and lube distributor. Verry tacky and holds up all day .
I run a interantional 4300 with air brakes and my first lube was in October Last week I finaly hit the grease fittings with abbout 17,000 miles I monitored it weekly to make sure I had lube. Still had lube on the stering u joints, nice sticky plugs on all the fittings kept them lubed and clear except for the drive shaft those fittings were dusty but clear.
Im told I can go 25,000 on a lube but Ill still lube closer to 12,000- 15,000 miles compared to 3000 miles with other lubes. If you chose to push your lubes make sure you have at least two good lubes at 3000 miles to purge out the old lube and only the pyroplex is in the parts keep track of your joints to make sure they are not getting dry.
Thats my two cents, feel free to E mail me if you have any questions. good luck.
Bob Wolf.
[email protected]

I tossed a moog in the left side today. Tomorrow the right side also moog will go in.

purgoose10 · Feb 15, 2012

There's a lot to what Bob stated. AutoZone is a large rip off. I once got away from NAPA because their prices went ballistic, but found out their parts are quality parts and I needed to stay with them.
As far as front end work and I know this is over kill but I found that overhauling the front end of my chevy c/vans at 250K saves a lot of tire wear. And I always included changing the idler arm as well. Front end shops don't usually change that unless you ask them. I am about to upgrade one of my C/Vans to a larger unit. It been a good truck. It's fixing to top 700k w/o any problems and on the same engine. The tranny was change out last year, did that before it failed (don't like road failers and neither do my drivers).