Cost for replacing upper ball joints--

Sounds like radius arm bushings? No idea on cost, tho

Except the 96 had upper and lower control arms, not modified twin I-beam.. And bad radius arm bushings usualy result in clunks, and pulls when brakes applied as axle moves forewards and back, not creaking. NAPA has one of the best setups for this, its a complete arm assembly, new ball joint and control arm bushings for $82.99 part number MRC10720 for the left, and MRC104230 which is ball joint and bracket for the right at $33.49. NCP 2601464 and NCP 2605122 are the higher end parts left and right but cost $139 apiece. Never had any issues with NAPA's "better" front end parts.

NAPA online store and autozone online are great sources of info, wouldn't give you a used yugo for anything from Autozone not name brand, ie their own garbage or Duralast, except the batteries, but then there are really only two battery manufactures anyways and everyone just rebrands them, Johnson Controls, and Excide.

Whitelightning

I replaced my right front lower ball joint about a year and a half ago. I have a 2000 Ford Ranger. I think my balljoint was about 40-50 dollars and It will probably take about 2hrs of time, so about 180 dollars give or take. As for replacing the upper when you change the lower, NOT necessarily. My upper was still good, so why replace it? I only replace the parts that need replacement. Only thing I replace more than one of at a time are things like spark plugs, headlights, and such just to keep from chasing my tail on maintenance. The more costly stuff I leave alone till it needs it, cause it probably wont be too soon after the bad part is replaced. I replace the headlights as a set to keep the brightness the same, and cause they go bad more often the the hard parts..

Ford Tech