Ball Joints, U-joints and Steering Linkage

satburn

satburn

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Feb 3, 2007
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So... I've been hearing this rhythmic clunk for a while. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I found the attached pic tonight. You think the u-joint is bad? LOL

The front end of this ol' truck has seen better days and I thought about just sending all of this work on to the next unfortunate owner. Which would be pretty mean of me, sure... but hey it's a lot of work. I have now decided to keep her and go ahead and invest the money to fix this thing.

It's been a while since I've looked and wanted to make sure that what I have found would be the best choice (or arguably the best choice) to rebuild the front. This is on a 3/4 ton 01 Dodge 4x4, leveling kit, 35s and a daily driver.

Ball Joints (top ones have a lot of play, may as well do them all):
XRF series
2002 Dodge RAM 2500 3500 4x4 Upper Lower Ball Joint XRF | eBay

Steering Linkage:
52122362AH Mopar Dodge Ram Steering Upgrade $256.45

Planned on getting the Pitman Arm from them as well...

U-joints:
Precision 270 - Universal Joint | O'Reilly Auto Parts

I'll need a trackbar as well, but haven't decided on which one yet... open to suggestions. Anybody have experience with the above parts? How well have they held up? Any better prices than this?

Thanks for any advice!
 

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Why get the pitman arm? If thats the 3rd gen upgrade linkage, you won't need the pitman arm. The older trucks need the pit man arm, but the later 2nd gen's don't.
 
I had thought I had read someplace that you had to ream the pitman to get it to seat with the upgraded linkage?

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I'm really disappointed in xrf
My 03 had them for less then 10k miles and they are loose.
 
satburn said:
I had thought I had read someplace that you had to ream the pitman to get it to seat with the upgraded linkage?

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i did not have to on mine. the 3rd gen pitman will NOT work.
 
Excellent... so there's some money saved! How is your's holding up?

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I just rebuilt my front end, IMO if you can afford it, or have a friend with dealer hook-ups, OEM balljoints, and OEM greaseable U-joints are really nice quality.
 
satburn said:
Excellent... so there's some money saved! How is your's holding up?

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great! i added a steering box stabilizer a couple months ago that helped a lot also.
 
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satburn said:
I had thought I had read someplace that you had to ream the pitman to get it to seat with the upgraded linkage?

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I used an '01 pitman arm from Napa when I put in the '08 steering linkage kit. My 98 would have needed reaming, but the '01 pitman mated everything together.
 
Cozze44 said:
I just rebuilt my front end, IMO if you can afford it, or have a friend with dealer hook-ups, OEM balljoints, and OEM greaseable U-joints are really nice quality.
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I do know people that know people that nobody should know, but unfortunately none of them work for a dealership.
 
Tate said:
I used an '01 pitman arm from Napa when I put in the '08 steering linkage kit. My 98 would have needed reaming, but the '01 pitman mated everything together.
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Ok, thanks for confirming... any opinions on the ball joints? I don't want to be doing these every 10k... :badidea:
 
I threw Napa units back in mine. I will say that my truck had 3 OEM balljoints in it until I swapped them all. That was at about 360k km. It had one Napa joint in it, 3 OEM, and one of the top OEM joints was bad. All the rest were good still. But dealership prices made me walk away from new OEM joints.
 
Tate said:
I threw Napa units back in mine. I will say that my truck had 3 OEM balljoints in it until I swapped them all. That was at about 360k km. It had one Napa joint in it, 3 OEM, and one of the top OEM joints was bad. All the rest were good still. But dealership prices made me walk away from new OEM joints.
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Which one did you go with?
 

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I went with xrf this last time. I only have 30k on them but so far so good. Supposedly they have a million mile warranty on them, but then again Moog offers the life time as well and I hear good and bad from them.

I have pretty much come to the conclusion that I am going to be replacing them for as long as I have the truck. Once you do it a few times it gets easy. Make sure you put anti-seize on all of them and the next time you take them out it will make the job so much easier. That and put them in the freezer over night and they will almost slide in.
 
Moog problem solver ball joints for the bottom and top on mine, as said the stock 01 arm will work fine with the 08 steering. If you are running stock alloy wheels cut the hex part of the outer tie rod down to about 1/4 or 1/2 inch to clear the rim. There is plenty there so don't worry. For tracbar get the 3rd gen conversion bracket and a Carli adjustable or a 3rd gen adjustable unit. You can also get a good u joint through quad 4x4. If you have not done so already, plan to replace the locating arm bushings at the least, replace the locating arms if finances allow and use 1/2 longer units.

I did all of the above to mine and installed some Bilstien 5100's as well. Amazing difference in ride and steering, no more sawing the wheel on a good road and it doesn't follow ruts in the road anymore.
 
I've weighed the options and given it is a DD, I ordered the Moog Problem Solvers and will do the 3rd Gen upgrade on all of it. I have already replaced the ornamental OE shocks that were under it with some Gabriel's. That got a lot of the lumber wagon ride out of it. Hopefully the rest will help the wheels turn instead of sending the nose of it the opposite direction, lol.

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