ball joint pricing

Depending on where NTB gets their parts, prices vary a lot. I would think the labor would be about 2 hours + front end alignment.

I think your best price would be no less than $220 parts, $240 labor. This would include the front end alignment.

Paul Nelson

03 Rubi

in article snipped-for-privacy@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com, bspear78 at snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote on 11/16/06 4:01 PM:

Napa sez (note I price NCP Napa Chassis Part and not MRC) MRC is the lower end and just isn't that good a part. MRC is about 25$ each for upper and lower.

Ball Joint Upper NCP 2601291 $50 Ball Joint Lower NCP 2601292 $56

So that's $212 in parts for both sides. (plus tax)

While your in there may as well check all the steering joints and track bar.

Well to just pull the axles and replace seals they want that kind of money so changing the ball joints on top of pulling the axles, well.....

It is a pretty labor intensive job.

I would still shop around for pricing.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06 (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

Wow 800 huh? I had mine quoted at $600... so I went out and bough the big c-clamp and balljoints and did it myself for less than half. Some people said you can just pop them out with a hammer but I couldn't no matter how hard I popped them with a 3lb hammer, so I had to use the c-clamp, AND hit it with the hammer.

Troy

bspear78 wrote:

Related question, what are the symptoms of worn ball joints? My Cherokee is the only "modern" vehicle (except for a Ford Granada, the

2nd best car I ever had) that I've had long enough to be concerned about the ball joints, and the Jeep has over 300,000 miles on it.

(That Granada was a 2dr, battleship gray six cylinder with a 4 speed, bought it with 100k on it, sold it with 200k, got more than I paid, and the only thing other than brakes that had to be replaced was an $18 water pump!)

Jeff DeWitt

bspear78 wrote:

Like death wobble but scarier. Also, a wheel and brake assembly flying off is a good sign that ball joint was going out.

Carl

On my TJ when the shop showed me my bad balljoints they had it on a short little lift and pried from the bottom under the tire with a crowbar and yeah I did see it flex a bit. When viewed from the front at a distance with the tires straight I could tell there was a little lean to the inside from the top. When I jacked it up off the ground the wheel was straight so I replaced them now its all good. Hope that helps.

So your TJ needs new balljoints or are you chasing down a shimmy problem?

Troy

bspear78 wrote:

You can tell the shape of the ball joints 'usually' by using your eye and looking from the front or a level. If the tires are tilted out either at the bottom or top, you have one or more bad ball joints on that tire.

Wandering can be from a worn tie rod end or even a sloppy u-joint on the steering column just by the firewall.

You can lay under while someone pins the steering side to side while you watch all the moving joints for slop. Either side to side slop, or up and down slop.

Not enough to in can also make it wander. You can check that with a tape measure as mentioned earlier.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail >

I'll also add that simply horking on the tire with your arms is not enough force to make a worn balljoint move. Unless of course the balljoint is well and truly broken. Not even Hulk Hogan can put as much force on the balljoints than your vehicle can in a turn.

Replaced the inner tierod to drag link balljoint because it was pointed out to me by the folks at Tires Plus (had the ZJ in for a rotation and free check). The only way to detect the problem was to use "chassis ears" (electronic version of the mechanics stethoscope) and turn the wheels under power while they were clamped down. Then you could defiantly hear the pop/sucking noise.

End result is my ZJ became a lot more stable on the road. So much so that I sat dumbfounded on how less than 3/100 of slop could make such a difference. (Yes, I checked and the alignment didn't change) :)

Reminds self: need to price that tool out. Very cool.

You can pretty much the same result for free. Get a helper to sit behind the wheel. Slide under the front and wrap your hand around the tie rod ends. Have the helper turn the wheel back and forth - not too far, just to the point where they feel the full resistance. Any slop in the tie rod ends will be easily felt. Same thing works for any ball and socket setup, but the ball joints and the trackbar are a little hard to get hold of.

My XJ tracks straight and the wheels don't look tilted. The only thing it does weird is once in a while there is a sort of "chunk" that sounds like it's coming from the front, most often when backing up. There is no funny tire wear either.

Jeff DeWitt

DougW wrote:

IMHO, NTB like Midas are in the business of creating fear to drive sales where a good mechanic is in the buisness of keeping your buisness by not screwing you over. I'd get a third opinion.

When I had one recently go bad, the steering would 'jam' up when turning right not wanting to come back straight unless I overcorrected with the steering wheel, then it reached a 'hump' point and came back really fast.

The joint had surprisingly little play, but there was enough that the grease boot had fallen off.

If NTB is a chain store and the 'mechanic' is a 'real' one not one of these idiot technicians that only knows what a computer tells 'em, then I would believe the mechanic.

Mike

bspear78 wrote:

NTB is a national chain composed of formerly prominent local chains purchased by Sears. Sears spun off the chain in 2003 after years of complaints including charges of defrauding 30 million customers by the New Jersey Attorney General in 1999. Sears settled a similar suit in Florida.

According to Sears most of the chains 3500 employees went to work for the new owners.

Is it still 'business as usual?

Could be the brake pads moving about or a loose suspension bolt. I had a series of pop-pop-pop-pop-pop every time I stopped or accelerated. Turned out to be the top control arm bolt on the driver side. Just wasn't tight enough and was slipping just a teeny bit. Amazing how much noise it made for how little room there is to move.