you should go ahead and do all four ball joints since everything will be torn down- the cheapest place i found for moog greasable ball joints was rockauto.com

 

whats wrong with the ones the pic? How much are these moog greaseable lifetime ones?

 

get this and save yourself A TON OF TIME!!!!!!
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=38335
I wont do them with out it

 

If all you have is up and down play in them they are probably OK. If they are bad there will be other signs like tires cupping, popping noise when turning, wandering on the fwy. My local shop wanted to replace mine due to up and down play, dodge said they were OK, that was 5k miles ago and all is OK still. I did take a needle greese gun adaptor and put some good greese under the rubber boot, can't hurt. Someday they will go and when they do I will do the manual hubs and all the ball joints.

 

Here is a site that might help.

http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech/balljoint.php

 

as i said in previous add get them to measure the up and down play and let you know, there are no ill effects on a little up and down play just inside and out play is an issue.

 

This is something I just barely feel when I hit a small bump and I can feel in on my foot when I tap the gas pedal. Truck drives good but is starting to have inner tire wear and I can feel and hear the uneven threar wear b/c when i got the 6" lift kit 2 weeks ago, I never got an alignment until yesterday but then the shop said they wont give me an alignment b/c my truck will need ball joints first so thats my story.

 

just because DC allows .090 of movement doesnt mean we can't have less or no movement in the joint. I just had all four of mine changed at 13K and now they have .000000no movement in them.

 

DC has such a high tollerance for movement cause they dont want to be replacing thousands of ball joints on trucks. They set the secs higher so they dont have to replace them. Ford also does the same thing. Go to a respectable shop that will do an alignment.

 

I just spoke with the 4x4 experts in Montana. I ordered that kit. The mechanic up there said that there is a problem with the design of the dodge and that all of the weight rides on the lower ball joint. (if I understood him right) He says that they tried the greasable joints and they had a 50 percent return on them so they went back to the oem parts.

He said you can just about figure on replacing your ball joints every 2 to 4 years. Ouch.....

 

That kit is everything you need to do the job, minus tools. I would recommend spending the extra little bit of money and getting greasable joints the first time around. I only got those because I was shor ton cash at the time. Get the moogs, but that kit isnt too bad.
Good Luck

M Sandt

 

Some play is definitely allowable, and often exists even with brand new ball joints. Ask him what the spec is and how many thousandths of play your joints had.

 

well it seems like the ball joints arent that bad afterall, the passanger side has very slight play where as the drivers side is tight and solid, so it seems like I just ran into a bunch of scam artists.

 

It's just as likely that they were unaware, and not smart enough to check a manual.

 

after more and more driving, I guess I will change the ball joints. When im doing over 50mph,i tend to NOT have control over the steering wheel, like it just wont go straight. Its probably b/c the passanger side does have more play where it goes in and out as well as up and down just NOT alot. Is it OK to change just the passanger side for now? Napa sells them for like $75 EACH, anyone know if they sell the greasbale ones?