"Mickle79" <mmicalone@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:880ae065-d708-4b29-b408-895b4640094d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> I've taken my '99 XLT Explorer (78K miles) to my local mechanic and
> have had them replaces both the upper and lower ball joints. From
> what I've gathered, the front-end suspension on the Explorers is one
> of the first things to go on them. I agree with everyone else that
> you should get a second opinion, but I wouldn't be surprised if after
> only 55K miles that you would need to have them replaced. That's
> about the time that I had my uppers replaced. Good luck!
Unfortunately ball joints are one of those things that shops like to sell.
It is a straight forward, low skill, high profit job. And it is easy to
setup a demonstartion that will convince a Customer that he needs new ball
joints, even if they aren't actually out of spec. Take a look at
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/PDFs/Moog_Ball_joint_spec_chart.pdf
or http://tinyurl.com/29moao.
A lot of shops use the wrong procedure for
checking Ford ball joints. In some cases I think this is just a lack of
knowledge, and in other caes they do it wrong on purpose in order to
convince you to pay for ball joints you don't need. Almost all Fords are
the
same - don't check for axial movement, radial movement must be less than
0.031.
Regards,
Ed White
|
