Ball joint specs

talkinghorse43

Well-known member
BTW, at 186K miles I think my ball-joints were due - both were extremely loose, and the passenger side had roughly 1/8" of vertical play in the stud. I have a friend with an '06 who replaced his at roughly 205K - and reported almost 1/4" of vertical play in the studs. If you have similar mileage you may wish to consider checking them or having them checked and/or replacement. He and I both probably should have replaced them at 150K. Outer tie-rod ends were still tight (maybe another 50K to 100K left in them)

What's the ball joint replacement spec? I've looked & asked for, but haven't seen one. I've been going on tire wear pattern figuring if the tires are wearing evenly & smoothly, the suspension is OK.
 

rlent

New member
Re: Glow plug replacement questions

What's the ball joint replacement spec? I've looked & asked for, but haven't seen one.
There isn't one as far as I know - other than the following from the service manual:

"DIAGNOSIS AND TESTING - PRE - ALIGNMENT INSPECTION

Before starting wheel alignment, the following inspection and necessary corrections must be completed. Refer to Suspension and Steering System Diagnosis Chart below for additional information.

(1) Inspect tires for size, air pressure and tread wear.
(2) Inspect front wheel bearings for wear.
(3) Inspect front wheels for excessive radial or lateral runout and balance.
(4) Inspect ball studs, linkage pivot points and steering gear for looseness, roughness or binding.
(5) Inspect suspension components for wear and noise."



I've been going on tire wear pattern figuring if the tires are wearing evenly & smoothly, the suspension is OK.
Yup - same here. My first set of tires were replaced at 123K and they had worn fairly evenly (tread depth measurement in each tire groove roughly within 1/32nd of the others, IIRC) My current set have around 63K miles on them .... and they had begun to wear more unevenly than the last set .....

Specifically, I have been experiencing increased wear on both the inboard and outboard groove, as compared to the center two grooves in the middle of the tire - which is rather odd, in that I'm running 80 psi of pressure all the way around. If anything, the center grooves should be wearing more than the outer grooves - instead I'm seeing roughly 2/32nds or more greater wear on the inside and outside grooves versus the two center grooves.

Additionally, the passenger side tires were wearing faster than the drivers side (interestingly, the passenger side was the one that had the ball-joint with 1/8" of play in the stud) - enough that when I had the tires rotated the last time I had them rotated in an X pattern (fronts to rear, but to the opposite side ...... and rears to front, but to the opposite side)

My friend that I mentioned in the previous post, and I are both running Michelin LTX rubber - I'm running the LTX M/S, my friend is running LTX A/S - he had similar wear patterns on his tires, as what I'm reporting here.

In addition to the outer tie-rod ends, I have the bushings for the front stabilizer links (4), and for the front stabilizer bar (4), and the bushings, bolts, & nuts for the lower control arms (4), ...... I did not replace any of these at this time as they appeared to be tight and in good condition. I expect that I will replace all of these either when I replace the tie-rod ends, or at some arbitrary point (400K miles ?) ..... since the cost for the bushings/bolts ($60) is relatively insignificant, as compared to the cost of a set of good tires ($700 to $800)
 
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talkinghorse43

Well-known member
Re: Glow plug replacement questions

I'm running 80 psi of pressure all the way around
Mine was delivered that way, but was almost uncontrollable (followed every rut in the road) in that condition and gave an uneven wear pattern similar to yours. All that disappeared when I dropped back to the recommended front tire pressure (55 psig) as recommended by a dealer in the St Louis area I visited for that problem.
 

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