Ball joints:how much should i be paying?

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KramerSwinger70

KramerSwinger70

70 Dart Swinger360
Joined
Sep 17, 2009
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Location
Rohnert Park, CA
so i had a mechanic look into why my car makes an grinding noise....i have a bad upper ball joint an the passenger side and the upper and lower joints are bad on the dirver side. when i take a turn, the body roll forces the bad ball joints to rub on the inside of my wheels, causing a really ugly grinding sound.

where can i order these without spending an arm and a leg? keep in my the car is a 70 dart. i dont know what else you may need info-wise but let me know cuz i wanna get this fixed ASAP so i can go take care of gettin a paint job
 
What brakes do you have on your Dart? Stock drum brakes or do you have a 73-up disc brake kit with the large ball joint upper control arms?
 
It is recommended that you replace both uppers and lowers. Available at RockAuto.com

TOP: Moog PN: K704 $50.99 (X2) = $102

LOWER, RH Side W/ Drum/Drum Brakes: Moog PN: K785 $98.79

LOWER, LH Side W/ Drum/Drum Brakes: Moog PN: K787 $98.79

They have the cheapest prices...Looks like you'll spend about 300 bucks...
 
fantastic.....im broke again! guy said it wuld be about a 2 1/2 hour job so there goes my life savings! thanks for doin the research for me, ill have to figure something out but at least i kno where to find em!
 
Man, they are EASY to change...You can't do them your self? Do you have the tools? A Haynes or Chiltons repair manual?
 
Agree with mopardude318, a pickle fork, jack, BFH, and thats about it, maybe a big socket, but I used a large pipe wrench. I just took my upper ball joint out, but my K-frame is outta the car for the resto and its was easy. You may need an alignemnt when its done....I think??? Do it yerself we can help ya and save you some $$$
 
If you go with Rock, enter this code into the box where it says, "How did you hear about us?" on the shopping cart page: 40968573373471 . That will give you a 5% discount.
 
I have bought from Rock Auto twice. Pleased both times. One thing I noticed (at least for shipping to US) is that they do not combine shipping costs with items on the same order from different warehouses. Thankfully, they have a really good "shopping cart" that shows you which warehouse each item is coming from, and the shipping cost broken down by item. Sometimes I have purchased a more expensive part, and had it be cheaper overall because it came from a warehouse where my other parts of the same order were being shipped from. So if your order shows parts coming from two or more warehouses, try selecting different brands to see if you can get them all from the same location, and save quite a bit.
 
While I agree that Moog parts are top of the line, there are cheaper alternatives. I think you can buy a kit from PST that has upper & lower ball joints, outer tie rod ends, & control arm bushings, strut rod bushings, plus maybe some other items for $219 with free shipping last time I checked.

www.P-S-T.COM
 
'64 Cuda said:
While I agree that Moog parts are top of the line, there are cheaper alternatives. I think you can buy a kit from PST that has upper & lower ball joints, outer tie rod ends, & control arm bushings, strut rod bushings, plus maybe some other items for $219 with free shipping last time I checked.

www.P-S-T.COM
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That is a good point...You could do a mild front end rebuild...Also, Rohnert Park is about 2.5 hours away from where I'm at, I could bring all my tools and help you do this if you want....
 
I got a cheaper PST kit and so far so good. If you do the upper control arm bushings, just make sure you drop the car down off the jack before you tighten the bolts.
 
I was going to suggest a kit to. For the price of the individual parts you can get the kit mentioned.
 
i have absolutly ZERO experience and wouldnt be able to do it on my own. mopardude318 i would actually really appreciate that. so would i just be better off getting that PST setup then?
 
Yes, just get the kit. The job is a pain in the *** and can take all day or even a weekend if you don't have experience with it. If you're gonna start tearing it apart, you might as well just do everything at once instead of having to do it all over again in a couple years.

You better buy Mopardude a t-bone steak dinner when you guys are through :)

Also make sure you have enough money for an alignment afterward.
 
ESP47 said:
Yes, just get the kit. The job is a pain in the *** and can take all day or even a weekend if you don't have experience with it. If you're gonna start tearing it apart, you might as well just do everything at once instead of having to do it all over again in a couple years.

You better buy Mopardude a t-bone steak dinner when you guys are through :)

Also make sure you have enough money for an alignment afterward.
Click to expand...

haha yeah no kidding!

alignments arent too expensive, are they? looks like the kit i need from PST is $259 for the "original performance" kit with drums. correct me if im wrong
 
I don't know I'm having trouble navigating that site. You might want to post a link to the one you want to buy. I got mine off of ebay a few years ago.

Alignments can be anywhere from $50-100. Les Schwab had them for around $50 and I took my car in there after I rebuilt the front end suspension on my car. The guy put my car on the rack and then came out half an hour later and told me that the toe in was messed up on it and it would cost $20 per tie rod end to adjust. So $80 on top of the $50 for the rest of the alignment. I was like uhh I'm no rocket scientist but I'm pretty sure the toe is part of a regular alignment. He said he had to take my tie rod ends off to adjust them. I told him you just loosen the two screws on the tie rod and turn it to adjust the toe. He told me he wasn't going to argue with me about it. So after telling him to give me my car back and telling everyone that was in there how that guy was trying to scam me....I took the car to a regular shop and got it aligned for $80. Has ran straight ever since. Sometimes you gotta pay a little more to get the job done right.
 
I have seen it where some shadetree mechanic has put two right-hand thread ie rod ends on the same rod, and made it so you do have to remove one end of the rod to adjust the length of the rod. It usually happens when someone buys a "kit" that only comes with the outer ends, and the rod is reversed for some reason. I've seen it a few times. I'm not saying that this is what was going on on your car, but it doesn't always work when you loosen both ends and turn the rod. Sometimes it moves closer to one, and farther from the other.

As far as this 70 Dart, are you planning to convert to big bolt pattern? If you are, I'd do it all at once. Stronger spindles, stronger ad cheaper ball joints, better brakes, etc. I'd hate to throw all that money at the small crap if you're going to pull it back off eventually.
 
So does Amazon, believe it or not. And usually free shipping on orders over $25...

I look up the part numbers on rockauto.com, then do a search on Amazon. Kind of a pain, but good prices.
 
Tom, im keeping SBP. i know many here thinks its ridiculous, but i just dopnt want to swap to BBP. ill eventually get sbp disc brakes on the car. i like my wheels and dont plan on changin them. plus i dont have any money to to the swap and get wheels and tires. i hardly have enbough extra to get the PST set up! it sux bein 18, workin a dead-end ice cream shop job and payin for college outa pocket i tell ya!
 
damnimcooltom said:
I have seen it where some shadetree mechanic has put two right-hand thread ie rod ends on the same rod, and made it so you do have to remove one end of the rod to adjust the length of the rod. It usually happens when someone buys a "kit" that only comes with the outer ends, and the rod is reversed for some reason. I've seen it a few times. I'm not saying that this is what was going on on your car, but it doesn't always work when you loosen both ends and turn the rod. Sometimes it moves closer to one, and farther from the other.

As far as this 70 Dart, are you planning to convert to big bolt pattern? If you are, I'd do it all at once. Stronger spindles, stronger ad cheaper ball joints, better brakes, etc. I'd hate to throw all that money at the small crap if you're going to pull it back off eventually.
Click to expand...

Tom, I did that on accident at first before I understood what was going on. After swapping the ends to the correct sides, I adjusted the toe out myself on the car to get it close enough to drive (without ever having to take the tie rod ends off again). I'd adjust the toe out and then drop it off the jack. Back it out of the driveway and back in. Then I'd eyeball the toe to see where I was at. After doing this about 3 times it looked good enough to me. After the guy aligned it, he told me he hardly had to touch the toe at all because it was so close. I told him it was all luck :)

But yeah the first guy just didn't know what he was doing because they were on there correct when I brought it to them.
 
73charger said:
Tom, im keeping SBP. i know many here thinks its ridiculous, but i just dopnt want to swap to BBP. ill eventually get sbp disc brakes on the car. i like my wheels and dont plan on changin them. plus i dont have any money to to the swap and get wheels and tires. i hardly have enbough extra to get the PST set up! it sux bein 18, workin a dead-end ice cream shop job and payin for college outa pocket i tell ya!
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I hear you. Heck, I'm turning 40 in a couple of days, and I'm still paying for college. My story sounds similar, but I was working at a pizza place.

I've done what you're doing, done what you're planning, and swapped to big-bolt. I won't play with the 9" spindles anymore. I bumped a curb once in the snow, and bent one. The later stuff is stronger.

I understand where you're coming from. If I had any of that 9" stuff to give you to help, I would, but unbelievably in all of my piles of stuff, I don't have anything that will help.
 
damnimcooltom said:
I hear you. Heck, I'm turning 40 in a couple of days, and I'm still paying for college. My story sounds similar, but I was working at a pizza place.

I've done what you're doing, done what you're planning, and swapped to big-bolt. I won't play with the 9" spindles anymore. I bumped a curb once in the snow, and bent one. The later stuff is stronger.

I understand where you're coming from. If I had any of that 9" stuff to give you to help, I would, but unbelievably in all of my piles of stuff, I don't have anything that will help.
Click to expand...

well i very much apprciate the thought. its not that i dont want to swap, i wouldnt mind to. but right now, i dont have the green for it. who knows, maybe someday down the road ill decide to make the swap. for now though, im keepin it stock
 
I'm not knockin puttin a kit on it, but have you had other psrts diagnosed as bad? I mean, if the ball joints are all that's bad, why pay for a whole kit if you might not need it? I sure wish you were in Georgia. You could bring by here and I would show you how to do it step by step and help you get it done.
 
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