Do you guys think this ball joint is bad?

[JerryIrons]

I was changing out a bad wheel bearing and found this, imagine my surprise!

 

[Mooseman]

That looks like the original with the staked edge. Holy crap! How many miles on it?

 

[Matt]

Nah, it's got another 5 miles left on it!

 

[JerryIrons]

That looks like the original with the staked edge. Holy crap! How many miles on it?

It was the original I couldn't believe it, it had the staked edges that needed punched in to remove. Almost 298,000 miles on it.

Then I started thinking, how long has it been bad? But I have inspections and alignments done at the dealer now, on purpose so they alert me to things that need changed. You know how they are, the slightest wiggle on anything and it's "this needs fixed, $500 and it's all better". And then of course I tell them ok I'll take care of it. I felt guilty about going to a local mechanic about this, even started giving him extra cash but knew I was becoming that pain in the a$$ customer that he doesn't make any money on.

Since my teenage son is the primary driver of this vehicle, this could be a factor I'm guessing he might have been a little aggressive on it and that ball joint cratered out the top. Has anyone seen that before? I knew something else was out of wack on the suspension, it wasn't just a bad wheel bearing(growling and abs at low speeds), but man this thing was close to failing I think. Raised the wheel, put a crowbar underneath it and boy did it wobble, an alarming amount. I drove it to work the next day, carefully avoiding any potholes and then stopped at napa to buy a new ball joint on the way home, for once I didn't even consider price.

Because of that cratered top, this thing was a PIA to get out, basically the top was gone! here is what it looks like removed:


The "normal" 4 wheel drive ball joint kit doesn't fit these, once I put the new one on I will show a pic why. Most people know this on here anyway.
Air hammer no luck as well, I finally got the torch out, had to heat up the control arm outer circle to cherry red and put a useless 12 point socket in there, and proceeded to beat it out. (jack under control arm to give stability) Had to use heat a few times! At least I got some frustrations out after watching the bills lose that football game

 

[Mooseman]

That ball joint deserves to be put up on a wall. It clung on to dear life and I have certainly never seen one last that long on a GM. I think the oldest I have ever seen was about 300k km on a Honda.

My 07 TB with only 87k km already had all its ball joints replaced by the PO and I had to replace those out at about 100k km with TTX. Yours at 300k miles is insane!

Did you check the others? Are they also original?

 

[JerryIrons]

That ball joint deserves to be put up on a wall. It clung on to dear life and I have certainly never seen one last that long on a GM. I think the oldest I have ever seen was about 300k km on a Honda.

My 07 TB with only 87k km already had all its ball joints replaced by the PO and I had to replace those out at about 100k km with TTX. Yours at 300k miles is insane!

Did you check the others? Are they also original?

When you asked about the others I really got to thinking about this, because I have replaced the uppers multiple times, then went back and checked my spreadsheet, I have one with dates and mileages of work done. About 8 years ago, and 130,000 miles ago, I replaced the lower control arms, and they had lower ball joints installed on them already, with the bent over tangs. So it's not the originals! False alarm lol.

 

[JerryIrons]

So for those wondering, here is a pic of the new ball joint installed, and you can see what you are dealing with when removing the old one:


See how the control arm diameter is the same as the ball joint? It's very hard to grab onto something with a standard ball joint press, when you are trying to push it out of the bottom. There are those "ears" but there is going to be a lot of force there, plus the whole getting things to stay in one spot deal that is usually part of the ball joint press tool fun...

Installing it was super easy, all I did was grab one of the press adapters, and then tap it in with a hammer. Yes there is a c ring that goes up on top just haven't installed it yet. All that rust on the bottom just fell off during the beating session, rust belt fun!

 

[Mooseman]

You went with the TTX. So far, mine have been holding up despite the extreme bad luck I've had with Mevotech. Others have used them with good results.

Those ears are for the ball joint press but you need the full or master kit as there is one specifically that fits onto those ears and on the arm. I made my own by grinding a notch to allow the spacer to rest on the arm and the notches.

 

[JerryIrons]

You went with the TTX. So far, mine have been holding up despite the extreme bad luck I've had with Mevotech. Others have used them with good results.

Those ears are for the ball joint press but you need the full or master kit as there is one specifically that fits onto those ears and on the arm. I made my own by grinding a notch to allow the spacer to rest on the arm and the notches.

Well it wasn't by choice, and truth be told I wasn't thrilled when they handed me one at napa. I think my comment was "well that's a ball joint all right", but I was just glad they had something in stock. My own fault really, I ought to keep one upper and lower in stock anyway as they can go on either side. Thought about grinding the notch as well, but just went with the torch and hammer route

 

[flyboy2610]

I replaced the front suspensions in the wife's '06 TB and my '04 TB EXT this past summer. All 4 lower control arms still had the original staked ball joints. I tried everything I could think of to get the first one out. I finally said enough of this, and bought new lower control arms! Some battle just aren't worth fighting!