Do I need to replace all 4 of these tie rod / joints? Can’t I just clean and re-boot them properly?

[Shran]

Bronco Graveyard just resells parts from other suppliers. They don't have their own brand. Too bad about the horrible reviews they are getting - they used to be awesome.

Mevotech is on par with every other cheap brand. I guess if I had to pick from what RockAuto is selling, I would buy either Delphi or TRW but I don't think it really matters. Dorman is pretty well known to be total garbage though. I'd be tempted to just get stuff from the parts store and make sure it comes with a lifetime warranty if you're even questioning it - that way you can hold their feet to the fire.... or just risk it and see what happens with ordering parts online. It will probably be fine. I put $4 ball joints in my crawler about 15 years ago and they're still going strong.

 

[eightynine4x4]

Bronco Graveyard just resells parts from other suppliers. They don't have their own brand. Too bad about the horrible reviews they are getting - they used to be awesome.

Mevotech is on par with every other cheap brand. I guess if I had to pick from what RockAuto is selling, I would buy either Delphi or TRW but I don't think it really matters. Dorman is pretty well known to be total garbage though. I'd be tempted to just get stuff from the parts store and make sure it comes with a lifetime warranty if you're even questioning it - that way you can hold their feet to the fire.... or just risk it and see what happens with ordering parts online. It will probably be fine. I put $4 ball joints in my crawler about 15 years ago and they're still going strong.

That’s a good point about warranty. From what I’ve heard about JBG, getting returns/replacements is what they make very difficult. So if everybody is making the same cheap stuff now, i might as well get stuff with lifetime warranty.

Mevotech offers all 4 tie rods as well as ball joints all on RockAuto and their pricing is on par with everything.
Here’s their warranty… And i think I’d be doing the Supreme stuff for everything… Maybe I’ll reach out to them directly and see how the replacement process works.

Supreme Chassis & Terrain Tough Chassis - Limited Lifetime; Original Grade Chassis - 5 years or 60,000 miles (100,000km), whichever occurs first; Strut Mounts - 1 Year or 12,000 miles (20,000km), whichever occurs first, BXT Hub Assemblies, Bearings and Seals - 5 years or 60,000 miles (100,000km), whichever occurs first; Titan XF Hub Assemblies - Limited Lifetime; Bellow Kits - 90 days, Boot Kits - Limited Lifetime Warranty Details

So maybe that’s the way to go. Autozone Duralast has almost all the parts but not one of the inner rods, but regardless that seems like walking right into the fire. They seem to have some TRW too but not all.

 

[bobbywalter]

of course...this is the biggest thing. if you travel long distances regularly....


you are going to pay more for brick and mortar parts...often your going to spend 3 times as much at the box parts store.... as opposed to shopping on line. because it is worth it due to availability.


so my regular consumables, ones with available life time warranties are purchased there....u joints/cv axles water pump alternator ac compressor power steering pump and tensioners and pullies... i travel all over and waterpumps on my small block seemed to always pop far from home wheeling and its nice when they are free in the parking lot swap situation.


my ranger used to be the pinnacle of available parts and purposely constructed that way.....now...its showing the problems with vintage reliability. upgrading to 2005 plus one tons will make on the road parts sourcing much easier. last fall i ran into the issue where i left my normal travel box at home...just like the 25th anniversary run this past week, and the typical maintenance parts like spindles and wheel bearings and races are not just sitting on the shelf waiting for me like the old days at literally every town anywhere...

i suspect some of jeffs down doots are from the other parts suppliers....they are literally a mail order parts house that is a mom and pop operation... i detest mail order due to time and instant verification capacity. but it has its place as i am limited in budget as well.

remembering this is key when buying parts.

 

[Shran]

Lifetime warranties are only as good as the supplier - as far as I'm concerned, anything from online stores effectively has no warranty unless you want to jump through hoops and work directly with the manufacturer - these days they come & go so fast that they may not even be in business to honor the warranty in 5 years when it fails. The brick & mortar stores aren't going anywhere so if there is any question about maybe needing to replace it in the future, get it there and not online.

That said I buy 95% of my parts from RockAuto and eBay and just figure that if it works when I install it, it's good enough... the cost savings over time outweigh the cost of buying the occasional part two or three times.

 

[bobbywalter]

Lifetime warranties are only as good as the supplier - as far as I'm concerned, anything from online stores effectively has no warranty unless you want to jump through hoops and work directly with the manufacturer - these days they come & go so fast that they may not even be in business to honor the warranty in 5 years when it fails. The brick & mortar stores aren't going anywhere so if there is any question about maybe needing to replace it in the future, get it there and not online.

That said I buy 95% of my parts from RockAuto and eBay and just figure that if it works when I install it, it's good enough... the cost savings over time outweigh the cost of buying the occasional part two or three times.

when i started buying parts from autozone they still had lifetime warranties on rotors NQA. poor bastards still honor it.

but mysteriously when they reconsolidated my lifetimes to one number some of that shit was somehow lost and all of my receipts older then 6 years are just white paper...

though i still have a significant number of lifetimes....have not bought a fuel pump or starter or water pump for the ho in 30 years or heater core for the ranger.....

 

[eightynine4x4]

Well, one last ditch effort to find a reliable ball joint..
It seems that at least two of my ball joints were MOOG, maybe even “Problem Solver”. The boots sure look the same as what I see on the site.

These two are their current Problem Solver ball joints. So, metal gusher bushing..
MOOG-K8411
MOOG-K8412T

Is it worth the risk of spending 200 bucks for all 4 instead of 50 bucks? I heard Moog has gone to shit, but is that just their baseline cheaper stuff that’s gotten worse? Or has the Problem Solver stuff gotten worse too?

My ball joints all have zero play. Mobility is strange, but two are missing zerk fittings and the others haven’t been greased anyways. It seems a miracle they have no play. So it‘s mostly user error not manufacturer. Would I be silly to think that if I replace all 4 with MOOG Problem Solver that i might get this solid performance again? Or is that gone now ??

 

[Shran]

Are you opposed to just shooting them full of grease & running them? That's probably what I would do if there is no obvious slop in them... especially if this isn't your daily driver.

If you really want to replace them, I'd be awful tempted to buy the $50 set plus an extra upper & lower just to keep on hand.

 

[eightynine4x4]

Are you opposed to just shooting them full of grease & running them? That's probably what I would do if there is no obvious slop in them... especially if this isn't your daily driver.

If you really want to replace them, I'd be awful tempted to buy the $50 set plus an extra upper & lower just to keep on hand.

It’s kind of my ultimate thing I’m trying to decide, haha. I’m certainly open to it. They have no play. Just some stubborn rotation, or some overly slick rotation. But no play.
I just discovered these though, and since some have mentioned TRW being up there in the recommendation list, and these are super cheap as a close out, maybe this is the way to go?…

More Information for TRW JBJ871

More Information for TRW JBJ7019

Some people have these for sale for the same price as the Moog Problem Solvers.

 

[eightynine4x4]

I ordered these close out TRW’s because they were cheap and TRW has a reputation for OEM quality. I’ll inspect them when they arrive for rubber aging. If they look good, I’ll roll with them. I already have to do a return for rock auto soon so figuring these can go in the same package if I don’t want them.
If they look really good, maybe I’ll order another set for future.
I’ll probably also order all 4 Mevotech steering rods from RA too. It’s the only situation where a supplier has all 4 parts, and returns are easy. I’m not wanting to deal with bronco graveyard for returns if something shows up weird. And I’ve warmed up to the idea that the steering rods are easy access to replace so might as well stay as low cost as possible. I can keep my adjusting sleeves, and getting the 4 rods ends up 30 bucks less than JBG anyways. Autozone, who are very nice and helpful and one mile away, doesn’t have a complete set of rods via their system. Mevotech via RA seems to be the next best option for warranty anyways.
I could have fabricated new boots and stayed with the ball joints in my knuckles for a while but seeing that some of them have already been replaced makes me want to just start fresh again for 50 bucks.

 

[Jazzer]

Good decision- don’t forget that you’ll need to have a toe-in alignment after tie rod replacement, so doing it once is less expensive.

 

[eightynine4x4]

Good decision- don’t forget that you’ll need to have a toe-in alignment after tie rod replacement, so doing it once is less expensive.

Gotcha. Yeah i had fussed with the toe-in alignment a couple times just DIY on the ground. I actually got it pretty decent, so i should be ok to do that after this again.
I’m planning to install new radius arm bushings soon too. So at that point I’ll be pretty freshened up.

The thing is, my tires are 31x10.5 road friendly mudders that are from 2016. I think I’m nearing the end of life for them in theory, although there is still tons of tread left and i haven’t noticed any increase in air loss. But, i kinda wore down one inner edge because i had the wrong drop bracket installed on one side for like 500 miles. However that may be more leveled off again now. So I’m back and forth about whether i should take the truck in for a good alignment right after i do this and use these old tires, at a shop that does custom 4x4 alignments so will probably cost more than normal, or i should wait until whenever i buy new tires. I might just do my own toe alignment and then save the money for a good alignment when i get new tires, which could be next year who knows.

As for the steering rods, luck has it the Mevotech at RA ran out of stock on one rod just a few minutes before i placed my order. So i diverted to getting TRW inner rods, which are close out also, and some Moog Problem Solver outer rods which are regular stock and have full warranty but were only 20 bucks each instead of like 45-50 elsewhere. It actually ended up cheaper than the Mevotech total.

The TRW ball joints arrived today, and despite the close out status, they look excellent. The rubber is sealed in bags in all four boxes, so hopefully that helped them retain life on the shelf. The boots feel good so I’ll stick with them.

 

[Jazzer]

Depending on how close you can get the toe in, I’d wait for all changes before getting it aligned. Once and done.

I had a Mevotech upper control arm ball joint from RA disintegrate its boot in slightly over a year, so you may have dodged a bullet there.

You may have to pump some grease into the boots before or after install, seems like they’re cheaping out on lube from the factory.

 

[eightynine4x4]

Depending on how close you can get the toe in, I’d wait for all changes before getting it aligned. Once and done.

I had a Mevotech upper control arm ball joint from RA disintegrate its boot in slightly over a year, so you may have dodged a bullet there.

You may have to pump some grease into the boots before or after install, seems like they’re cheaping out on lube from the factory.

Maybe i got lucky!
Yeah I’ll just do the toe myself as best as possible. It’s not that complicated and last time i was able to get it decent enough to look correct and drive straight when streering straight. It wanted to pull a little to right, but i think this was due to the wear on inner edge of one tire.
I’ll certainly be greasing all these parts with RedNTacky.
I did Green Lucas on rear wheel bearings. I may use Green for fronts now too just to be consistent on wheels. But what i can tell, Red will be safe in all joints throughout truck including U joints, and is safe to add to old grease. I need to grease up some older rear U joints.

 

[eightynine4x4]

I’ve got all my old ball joints out and all my new ball joints loaded in.
All seems great except for the fact that one of the upper ball joints sits just slightly too shallow for me to get the snap ring inside the lip.
I would need to hammer / press the ball joint out, and grind down some of the bulk material from the knuckle.
1. Can i re-use the same ball joint if I hammer it out? I don’t think I’ll be able to use the press kit to remove this sized ball joint.
2. How unsafe is it to just omit the snap ring?

I think maybe this knuckle ended up with more material around the ball joint than the other knuckle. The snap ring on the other knuckle was very close to not fitting in, but it went in. This knuckle seems to have around 0.5mm-0.75mm of extra material blocking the snap ring. The ball joint is seated well, as you can see from second pic.

@ericbphoto
@alwaysFlOoReD
@Jazzer
@19Walt93
@bobbywalter

 

[19Walt93]

If you can find a socket or a short length of pipe that fits over the top part of the joint and sits on the ledge, you should be able to press it out and reuse it. It doesn't look like the joint was pressed in straight and square, that may be why you can't get the clip on. If you do need to grind a little materiall off the steering knuckle it shouldn't hurt anything but try repositioning the joint first.