ball joint replacement, initial inquiry

[sgull]

My 98 2WD has almost 104,000 miles on it and has never had the ball joints replaced. I glanced at them and they look generally fine, no cracking of the rubber or otherwise deteriorated or appear obvious that they need attention. I do plan on doing a more thorough inspection to check for excessive play/movement, and I if there is I'll certainly go ahead now with replacing as necessary. Although I've never done balljoints before, I've been looking at various info I can find that describes doing the job, and I'm confident I can handle it with proper instructions and hopefully some tips from the forum etc. From time to time I do notice/hear some kind of looseness from the front end when driving, which of course could be a number of things but I'm just wondering if even though the balljoints seem to look fine if perhaps that's not the case at all. Tire wear seems fine and even, and alignment seems good while driving (no veering off or such).
1. At the mileage I stated would it generally be expected that the balljoints are likely worn and high time for replacement, or not necessarily.
2. At my location the roads aren't that well maintained, a lot of rough spots on the pavement and bumpiness and such that I typically drive around on, does that kind of situation put more wear on the balljoints?
3. When/if I get around to doing the balljoints is it the lowers or the uppers that usually need replacement first?
4. Any comments on the pros or cons of changing out the whole upper control arm(s) with the Moog type so I can have zerk fittings and the balljoints would then be replaceable in the future. Is that almost always worth the initial extra expense.
5. My front shocks are only a year or so old, and wheel bearings where replaced a few years back, and I don't put a lot of mileage on the vehicle. Other than those things I've just mentioned, and looking at the balljoints, what else there in the front suspension should I try to at least take a good look at?
Any comments appreciated!

 

[adsm08]

Ball joint won't necessarily be worn out by 100K. I had over 200K on my original ones. I would check them and if they are not loose I would let them be.

Bad roads can make them wear faster, but that depends largely on driving style. If you are hitting all the pot holes you will wear them out faster, if you take it slow and aren't hitting everything on the road a bad road wont' kill them.

I have noticed no pattern in which wears out first.

The Moog arms with serviceable joints would be worth the initial extra expense if you plan to keep the truck indefinitely. If you plan to replace the truck before the next time you would need to replace the ball joints, then no. That question is all about the length of time you plan to wait for the return on the investment.

Take a look at the tie rods and sway bar links. Aside from the things you already listed as recently replaced, there isn't really much left in the front end.

 

[sgull]

Okay, thanks for that helpful reply adsm08.

 

[sgull]

I went ahead and did a quick inspection of the front end. To check the upper ball joints, I left the wheel(s) on and, with the car supported (separately, each side) by the jack, grasped the tire(s) and tried to detect any side-to-side (actually for tie-rod play) or top-to-bottom play. I detected no play. To check lower ball joints, the method I used was (again, with each side up on the jack, separately) putting a prybar underneath the tire and prying up to see if I could detect any lower balljoint play. I did not.

Visually, the all the ball joints boot rubber looked fine, not cracked or deteriorating looking at all. I did take some photos and have linked them here, for comment.

About a year ago I had a shop replace a leaking steering rack assembly with a rebuilt ("remanufactured") one. I notice now some leakage/seepage coming from it at this location http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb153/sgull1/leakrp_zps3e2dfbc0.jpg
Looks like maybe if I was able to tighten that threaded plug or whatever it is, the seepage might stop?

The boot on one side of the steering rack has this rip
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb153/sgull1/tirodrip_zps01f8a24f.jpg
And on the other side of the rack, the boot has a small rip/hole, hardly noticeable/visible but nonetheless is definitely a rip through the rubber http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb153/sgull1/smallripboot_zpsf677f696.jpg

The upper control arm bushings look like this, on both sides, worn to the extent that can be seen in this photo, with the rubber worn to a relatively thin taper on at least one visible end on each side http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb153/sgull1/uppercontrolbush_zpsda20a8d6.jpg

All in all, what I inspected did not look/seem bad to me, except the torn boots and leakage/seepage on the rack is of course of some concern. Also the tie rods seem tight and their boots (outer anyway) are fine looking.

I do seem to get some shuddering type "looseness" noise sometimes when I'm driving, not loud, and seeming to come from the front end. Looking underneath, so far I don't see anything particularly bad or what could be causing the noise. I'd appreciate any comments from those with Ranger front end work experience on what I've described above. Thanks

 

[adsm08]

The first pic is the sector shaft seal. It is a common leak point. That is actually pretty mild, more like seepage than a real leak. I wouldn't worry about that right now.

The second pic didn't work.

The bushing didn't loo bad to me.