Mustang ball joint replacement

[Brad Clayton]

This is a 2003 femstang with a couple of noisy ball joints.

 

 

Believe it or not a.....fella   drives this thing  to each his own, I guess.

 

Gonna be putting a pair of these in.

 

 

I mark the rotor to the hub.

 

 

And the spring to the control arm so I will know if it rotates by accident.

 

 

I remove the caliper and pad bracket as an assembly.

 

 

I remove the sway bar top hardware and only loosen the bottom hardware.

 

 

I chain the spring to the control arm for safety and it keeps the arm from falling down any lower than needed to get the ball joint free of the knuckle. The retaining nut is tucked away but easily removed with a wrench. I loosen the nut a couple of turns.

 

 

 

I give the knuckle a couple of sharp hits and break the joint loose.

 

 

I bring the car down and support the arm with a jack stand, remove the nut, and bend the backing plate back a smidge so the control arm will clear when lowered down.

 

 

The control arm is lowered down and once the knuckle is free, the strut is ratchet strapped over out of the way.

 

 

Now for some interesting notes. The ball joints on Explorers, Rangers, older F-150s, mutstangs, and pretty much anything with shallow ball joints and these stamped steel A-arms can be hammered out without a press. Guys in the shop can judge you by how many swings it takes to knock one out. And you better bet if they see what your doin they will be listening. So if you swing a hammer like a bitch, you might want to wait til everybody is at lunch to do this job.   This one came out with 2 hits, so my man card is still in tact.

 

 

This setup worked perfect for reinstallation.

 

 

I opted not to use the supplied retaining nuts (lots of nasty looking Loctite) and reused the originals because the nylock insert was still intact.

 

 

The rest was just reassembly of disassembly.

 

[Aaron]

I use a black smithing hammer.

 

Two hits. Me hitting the ball joint. Ball joint hitting the floor.

 

Lol femstang.

[Aaron]

Nice write up!

[lmorris]

I miss doing balljoints. Good times. Nice write up BTW.

[mchan68]

 

[batmantech]

MaryKay Mustang?

 

Or as my daughter would say Pinkalicious!

 

Oh as always nicely done Brad! The commentary is great.

[Brad Clayton]

Thank you fellas, all in a days work. I haven't worked on a diesel in about 3 weeks. I'm scrounging up whatever I can for work.

[mchan68]

Thank you fellas, all in a days work. I haven't worked on a diesel in about 3 weeks. I'm scrounging up whatever I can for work.

Are you really missing anything?

 

Enjoy your moments of being the Billy ball joint and Bobby brake shoe for a change. It definitely is an easier way to keep the bills paid.

[Brad Clayton]

Just call me Billy Bob then.

[Matt Saunoras]

Billy Bob Clayton

[Brad Clayton]

Thats fire marshal Billy Bob Clayton!

[Aaron]

Y...y...y...yay!

[Aaron]