Hey all,

My 05 needs lower ball joints and the shop wanted $800, so I ordered the Ford Racing lower control arm assemblies from Tasca for $204 ($226 with shipping...helluva deal IMO).

The last front suspension I rebuilt was a 67 and that was around 1993, when liberal use of a pickle fork was still considered current tech...

The tie rod ends are fine, so I'll rent or buy a cheapo puller for that duty, but in looking at the ball joint assembly, it looks like the shaft is retained with a bolt more than friction. Do you need a puller for the ball joint, or will a tap or two with a mallet usually do the trick?

I didnt replace bolts and nuts on my dad's 68 Lincoln, my 69 Cougar, or the 67, but I am reading warnings about reusing fasteners on most of the how-to sites. I'm inclined to clean and reuse the bolts and nuts that are under the car now. Any solid reasons not to? It has been babied, and has 19k miles on it.

Thanks in advance for any advice offered, and sorry if this has been overhashed somewhere else and I missed it.

 

Depends on how stuck they are. When I did mine back in 08 all I needed was a hammer. Last year when I replaced those again, they had a lot more rust and I had to use a pickle fork. Take the cross bolt out and the only thing that holds it in is light friction.

 

How did you know your ball joints were bad? Seems like low miles for them to be bad.

 

I started getting steering wheel shake @ 45mph, so I put the car up on jacks and shook the wheel side to side and could see the ball joint moving up and down in the socket, confirming it was worn out

 

Ok, I thought side to side was tie rods and up and down was ball joint? Just wondering because I have 80k miles and just checked these yesterday and they seemed fine. Sorry you had to do them so early.

 

Tie rods could also be diagnosed by shaking side to side.
Side to side and up and down could both be the ball joints. Up and down could also be the wheel hub. I diagnosed mine when I could see the ball joint itself was moving way too much