I recently replaced both outer tie rod ends due to excessive play. After doing that I took it to a wheel alignment shop for adjustment. The technician inspected the car and reported that the front ball joints were too loose to do an alignment--ball joints would have to be replaced before alignment.
So I took my car home and found extreme side-to-side looseness in the left upper ball joint. The upper control arm/ball joint assembly is relatively easy to replace so I replaced it with the Moog part. The right upper control arm/ball joint assembly had already been replaced with the Moog part about 50,000 miles ago.
I checked the lower ball joints by first lifting each lower control arm with a jack under it. I then inserted a pry bar between the lower control arm and steering knuckle. In the right lower ball joint I saw no perceptible movement. In the left lower ball joint I saw a very small vertical movement (1/32"-1/16" ? I have no dial indicator).
I searched the FSM (section 2) for a spec on allowable lower ball joint vertical play but cannot find any such spec.
The closest such thing I found was in the FSM in the diagram on p.18-9 where an arrow points to the lower ball joint and has the text "Inspect for faulty movement and wear." Not real helpful.
Does anyone know where I could find such a specification?
Thanks.
So I took my car home and found extreme side-to-side looseness in the left upper ball joint. The upper control arm/ball joint assembly is relatively easy to replace so I replaced it with the Moog part. The right upper control arm/ball joint assembly had already been replaced with the Moog part about 50,000 miles ago.
I checked the lower ball joints by first lifting each lower control arm with a jack under it. I then inserted a pry bar between the lower control arm and steering knuckle. In the right lower ball joint I saw no perceptible movement. In the left lower ball joint I saw a very small vertical movement (1/32"-1/16" ? I have no dial indicator).
I searched the FSM (section 2) for a spec on allowable lower ball joint vertical play but cannot find any such spec.
The closest such thing I found was in the FSM in the diagram on p.18-9 where an arrow points to the lower ball joint and has the text "Inspect for faulty movement and wear." Not real helpful.
Does anyone know where I could find such a specification?
Thanks.