Ball Joints

The suspension on my F150 is squeaking like crazy. I'm pretty sure it's one of the ball joints on the passenger side but I'm not 100% sure. It seems like pressing new joints into place would be a real pain. I read somewhere that I could drill and tap a hole to install a grease fitting. Then I could just lube it up and go. Any advice would be appreciated. Any other ideas on what could cause this squeak would be great too.

You sure it's not in the rear, like the leaf spring loop rubbing against the mounts? The stock bushings sucked bad in my Dakota and I had to replace them all.

I don't know about drilling and greasing. I would ask a wheel shop to check them for you. They could be worn, and greasing them won't necessarily make them safe again.

With a few basic large tools, you should be able to bust the suspension apart and replace. The ball joints for my Durango were like $50 for the heavy greasable ones. I "borrowed" a ball joint tool from one of the big name parts stores in exchange for buying the parts there. Only have to be careful about breaking bolts off and having to drill them out.

I also thought I had a squeaky suspension on that durango, but it turned out to be the fluid in the rear diff needed replaced. There are many things that could start squeaking. I still think the best bet is to take it in and have a shop look it over. The place down the road from me will perform a basic inspection for free. You might get that lucky.

if they are making noise then they are probably bad. greasing would stop the noise for a little while but they still wont be loose and can wear the tires unevenly. they aren't to bad to do actually in those fords. if you dont have a press, put a jack under the control arm to support it while you hammer them out.

Nothing worse than tackling a tough job and finding out that wasn't the problem. I've had springs and sway bar bushing squeak. I'd expect a ball joint to 'clunk' and make the steering weird.

yeah they usually clunk but sometimes squeak

I'm going to drop it off at a shop Thursday morning to see what they say. There's a shop I can walk to work from and I've had good luck with them before.

IME, "squeaking" is a bushing problem, not a ball joint one... the one time I had to have ball joints replaced, the noise was definitely more a "ka-klunk" sound, not a squeak.

They should already have grease fittings in them. Check first. It seems to me you wouldnt want to be drilling and tapping a ball joint. It's not really a place you would want metal shavings. They are very tricky to get out and the separator tool is a pain.

Ball joints are no joke get it looked at tomorrow. Some factory ball joints have no grease fittings my lower ones didn't just make sure your new ones do and get a good large grease gun with the flexihose and use the expensive grease. It lasts longer. Greasing at every oil change can double your ball joint tie rod life.

Jack your truck up, grab the wheel and try to wiggle it. If it has any play in it, it's probably a bad ball joint. If it doesn't, then it's likely something else. I suspect that your squeaking is coming from some other part like a bushing. Those are a ton of fun to replace too!

Ball joints are easy, Harbor Freight sells a ball joint press for about $40 IIRC, works great.

Gremlyn1 said:

Ball joints are easy, Harbor Freight sells a ball joint press for about $40 IIRC, works great.

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Yeah, but Autozone lets you borrow one for free.

My 83 Cougar had a ball joint go out. I remember it made an awful groaning noise just before it broke. I don't remember if it squeaked before that or not. I was young and too stupid to pay attention. I also changed that (the whole lower arm assembly) without a spring compressor tool. Yes, stupid.

The Durango wasn't making any noise, but they had a recall on the lowers and I wanted a full set of better than factory joints, so I replaced myself. Not too bad with the right tool. Probably different from the Fords though.

The upper A arm is an assembly with the ball joint so the entire arm is replaced which also includes the A arm bushings. the lower ball joint needs to be pressed out. If you suspect it is the rear springs squeaking spray them down with WD-40 and go for a ride. if you are sure its coming from the front I would suspect lower A arm bushings. I just replaced my friends upper and lower + tie rod ends. takes about 4 hours on a 2 wheel drive and 5 hours on a 4 wheel drive. Easy money with air and a ball joint press.

I replaced the upper and lower on my 98 Explorer and it was really easy. For the uppers I just took out the whole control are and replaced it. The lowers I just popped out with the tool from Auto Zone and the new ones went in with a jack. I'm not sure how long it would have taken to do just that but it couldn’t have been long. I replaced a bunch of stuff when I did it because I already had the whole front end torn apart

i had an upper ball joint go bad in my dakota, squeaked like all hell. didn't have a grease zerk on it and the assembly had welded pins. i had to angle grind the pins down so i could knock them out and then replaced the whole assembly with one that bolted in. it was a PITA, but it fixed the problem. with mine, i was able to just push down on the passenger side on the hood and make it squeak. i had my wife push down as i was grabbing the assembly and you could feel the vibrations to narrow down the problem (boy that sounded weird).