• Welcome to The Truck Stop! We see you haven't REGISTERED yet.

    Your truck knowledge is missing!
    • Registration is FREE , all we need is your birthday and email. (We don't share ANY data with ANYONE)
    • We have tons of knowledge here for your diesel truck!
    • Post your own topics and reply to existing threads to help others out!
    • NO ADS! The site is fully functional and ad free!
    CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

    Problems registering? Click here to contact us!

    Already registered, but need a PASSWORD RESET? CLICK HERE TO RESET YOUR PASSWORD!

R and R upper and lower ball joints.

hookedup50

hookedup50

Well-Known Member
Messages
852
Reaction score
293
Location
MA
My truck failed inspection for above title. I can no longer work on my truck due to upcoming neck surgury. My mechanic wants 750 to do upper and lower both sides. I hate doing ball joints to begin with but have no choice to farm it out. Seems like the parts are 350 at napa before taxes. Does this price seem about in the ballpark. Never thought I would look forward to being cut on, but put it off for three years. I can't walk a hundred yards with dogs without worrying about getting home.
 
$750 plus parts? I did my uppers in less than 3 hrs, lowers still have to be done and will likely take twice as long. That may not be a bad price, esp. if you are going in for surgery.
 
Nope 750 parts labor. Seems reasonable to me. Half the money for parts and half for labor. I have not let anyone work on any vehicle of mine for at least 20 years, so don't know costs, but do know how long it would take me.
 
Check Rockauto for UCAs and lower ball joints.Then decide if you are getting the right price. I had mine done recently and provided the parts at less than half of what he charged. Get Moog problem solvers

Sent from my SCH-I535
 
I was quoted about 8 hrs labor at $100 or more per hr. I bought Moog parts as well and decided to do it myself. It still isn't done however.:rolleyes5:
 
SOB, I've bought from Rockauto before but didn't with the ball joints. I could have damn near bought all 4 for what I paid for one. The shipping would have likely made it closer to 1/2 price.
NVW said:
I was quoted about 8 hrs labor at $100 or more per hr. I bought Moog parts as well and decided to do it myself. It still isn't done however.:rolleyes5:
Click to expand...
 
I've done this job twice. If you have forged Lower Control Arms, that makes it far easier to remove the ball joints as they're pressed in > no drilling of rivets. The uppers are not hard. Grind off the heads of the rivets and use a BFH and a punch. If you're at the point of doing ball joints on a '97 you should be doing at least the upper control arm bushings and probably the lower control arm bushings. It makes a big difference.

I did everything but the lower bushings and the sway bar links on my '99. Just had a sway bar link break because it was weakened by rust. New Moog links arrived from RockAuto today.

If you're not going to do the work, at least buy Moog parts from Rock Auto. Do a search for their current discount code and save yourself 5% more.
 
Concur on the Moog parts at a minimum.
My first upper and lower Ball Joint job cost more than you're being charged but I was stuck and needed it done yesterday. That was a long time ago.
 
Ideally, you don't Need the truck when you do this job because you should be doing multiple jobs while you're in there (bushings, CV axles, brake pads and rotors, sway bar links, tie rods, etc.). There will always arise some removal issue due to rust. The most likely are the 4 bolts that hold the bearing in place. If those are frozen in place, good luck getting them out. You're better off just removing the whole knuckle. If these bolts have been successfully removed before, then it's easy. They are highly vulnerable to rounding off the bolt heads and once that happens you face a horrible job of trying to drill them out. I have a spare set with frozen bolts and I'm going to soak them in a bucket of used ATF to get them out.
 
I dropped tge truck off the other day as I don't see an improvement with me medically. The Neurosurgeon sent me to the neurologist and have to get new lumbar MRI and a Brain MRI to figure out why I have these bad spasms. The spasm meds so far give me bad side efects, the least alarming one was hallucinations. Don't even want to discuss worse ones. I have replaced everythingb on this truck and it is killing me not to afford to change everything, but don't know when I'll work again as no has any answers, meanwhile my bank account is on fumes. I can't train my bird dog or hunt and this post sounds like a country song. Sorry.
 
Sorry to hear about the medical problems. My wife has lower back issues, but it's nothing compared to what you're describing.

All of the 6.5 powered trucks are enter the phase of high maintenance. Front ends need rebuilding. Engines always need something. Trannies giving it up. It's enough to drive a man to buy a new truck, until you see the prices on a new one.
 
I'll get better one of these days(feeling sorry for myself) and redo the front end on my beloved 6.5 truck properly. I did it to my Jeep GW and the complete redo of suspension on my Datsun 240z was about as difficult as it gets. The rear control arm removal tool had threads rated at 23000 pounds and would tear the threads like it was made at the harbor freight factory. That car rides pretty nice now except for the noisy urethane.
 
Update. The local garage gave me my truck back with upper/lower ball joints replaced. The used moog parts and charged 745 bucks. I'm also feeling better on new spasm meds .except for really tired and GF calling every hour to make sure I'm not driving. Gonna get formula 303 from Amazon at suggestion of AK. Hoping to reset TDCO tomorrow if feeling better. Thanks everybody.
 
when you first start taking it double the first couple of doses to get it built up in your system then back to regular amount. That was the chiropractors suggestion and it works well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top