Ball joint Problem

[rbell]

This is new to me, anyone ever had a ball joint push up like this? The bottom one looks fine but the top one has developed a nice gap. Its like the spindle pushed the joint out of the socket a little bit. Any thoughts??

 

[SMOKED]

jack that tire up off the ground and put a prybar underneath the tire and try to lift it up and down and see how much movement the ball joints have

 

[triton]

here's some good info that might give you some info as to what and why ........


Premature Ball Joint failures on 2003-up Ram Trucks is a reoccurring problem that will probably plague these trucks for their entire life due to the size of the Ball Joints and the steering geometry of the AAM 9.25" axle.

The Upper and Lower Ball Joints on these axles are at different angles, in other words the vertical axis of the Upper and Lower Ball Joints are neither inline or parallel to each other. To compensate for the different arc of each Ball Joint during turns, the modest sized, straight shank, 7/8" diameter stud of the Upper Ball Joint is vertically free-floating in a 1" long sleeve. Consequently, the Upper Ball Joint does not support any weight, it merely keeps the knuckle in place. On the AAM axle, the upper Ball Joint is not really a Ball Joint at all, instead it is a floating King Pin that is about the same diameter as the King Pins found on 1966-1981 Ford F100 4x2 1/2 ton trucks and light 3/4 ton trucks with GVW's of 4,700 lbs-6,900 lbs..

The Lower Ball Joint is load bearing, in fact, the two Lower Ball Joints carry 100% of the front axle weight on your 2003 or newer Dodge Ram truck. Dimensionally, the outside diameter of the Lower Ball Joint is only 4% larger than the Ball Joints used on 1972-1986 Jeep CJ's (and other light-duty models of that era) which has somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the front axle weight of the Dodge Ram, plus both the Upper and Lower Ball Joints on the CJ are load bearing. In addition, the Ball Joints used on older models like the Jeep CJ and 1994-1999 Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500* shared the same vertical centerline axis and were pre-loaded to compensate for wear. With the AAM front axle steering geometry using differing Ball Joint angles, no preload is possible, therefore, any wear means loose Ball Joints.

Yes, lack of lubrication with the non-greaseable factory AAM Ball Joints can be a factor, however very few of the failed Ball Joints we cut apart are suffering from a lack of lubrication. Replacement Ball Joints in both greaseable and non-greaseable versions are available from quad4x4.com, plus there is even an offset upper Ball Joint out there (which in my experience is both short-lived and of limited use). Installing Greaseable Ball Joints and regularly greasing them may provide longer service life, but with the AAM axle, chances are you will need to replace the Ball Joints on your 2003-up Ram 2500 or Ram 3500 4x4 truck every two to three years. One would not mind the short Ball Joint life so much if these trucks steered better than previous models, were not subject to "Death Wobble", or had longer tire life.

I found it very interesting that the 2003 Dodge Ram Truck Service Manual does NOT give any specifications for allowable Ball Joint movement or looseness, yet later manuals allow for up to an amazing 0.090" of vertical movement and 0.060" of horizontal play. You can interpret this information any way you want, but my experience has been that anything more than a fraction of the amount of play Dodge says is permissible will adversely affect steering and tire wear on the AAM 925 axle. (Note: 1/16" = 0.0625")

 

[rbell]

Well, no play what so ever in ANY direction. I saw somewhere else where a guy just pressed the joint back down and after several months it never moved again. I may give that a try but the maker did say they would replace the unit if I wanted them to.

Thanks Ty, think I saw that on quad 4x4 a while back..It certainly does shed some light on these AAM 9.25's...Not good light..lol...

 

[XLR8R]

Upper BJ is a floating kingpin, lower BJ is sized ~like a mid-'90's Chevy 3/4 ton. :badidea:

 

[Amish Elegance]

That looks like one of those high-dollar rebuildable 'ball joints.' Who is the manufacturer?

 

[rbell]

They are some High dollar joints but since they made it crystal clear they would replace the unit Id rather not throw anyone under the bus. Even the way it sits now, I can't get any movement in any direction.

After the second set of BJ's went bad in less than 10K I figured I'd spend some money on something that might last a bit longer....