Upper Ball Joints on 1998 2wd - must replace control arm??!!

[Armatron]

My upper and lower ball joints are just about completely worn out. Most of the boots are missing and they're squeeking - I squirted some chain lube in to get me through until the weekend.

I went to autozone last night and bought the upper and lower ball joints. I'm now reading that on a 98 the upper control arms MUST be replaced with the ball joints

Is that true?? The guy at autozone sold me individual ball joints.. I searched on the forums and most people complaining about it are 4wd, I wasn't able to determine if it applies to us 2wd as well.

Thanks all!

 

[Armatron]

I found this thread where 4x4rangerguy says that the 98+ 2wd have seperate ball joints!! Good news for me unless someone can tell me otherwise!

 

[kossdust]

I think the 2wd ranger uppers do come with a control arm. I believe there is an article someplace on someone that replaced the upper without replacing the control arm but it required a hydraulic press with a lot of pressure.

 

[kossdust]

Found it... man that took some digging

http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/~grant/ranger/ball joint/install.html

 

[exbass94]

If the 2wd has torsion bars, the whole arm gets replaced. With coil springs just the ball joint is replaced.

 

[Dshwopper10]

This is actually not true. I'm glad you posted this, I read this last night when I had to do my 1998 Ford Ranger 2wd upper ball joint. I bought the upper and lower, I looked at the upper one and it looked impossible to take out. I tried for a bit didn't work so I looked it up. You don't need a hydrolic lift. You don't NEED to buy the control arm that comes with the ball joint, witch by the way costs $114 at Autozone. My ball joint costed me 29 I believe. I used my Ball Joint kit actually. I paid $50 for it awhile ago. It worked out perfectly getting it off and on.

 

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

98-00 u can replace the ball joint without the A arm. 01+ u have to replace the whole thing.
thats for 2wd normal height trucks, with A arm suspension, not the ones with torsion bars.

i think u could swap the 01+ arm with some 98-00 so u can just replace the ball joint, but im not sure if it works.

 

[RustRanger]

Upper Ball Joint From Control Arm

So good to see some serious information on taking the joint from the control arm. I've been looking for something like this. So tired of watching videos of people showing how to jack your truck up and take the wheel off. Non of the videos I watched even had anything about the cam bolts. Seems everyone just changes the whole thing. Thanks to the man who made the original ( http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/~grant/ra...t/install.html ) . Thanks to Kossdust for finding it