My truck used to drive straight and true down the road with just a touch of looseness in the wheel. I developed a clunk in the front and found one of the Moog balljoints was worn out and loose so I decided to do all four with XRFs since I've heard a lot of good things about them on this site and others. It was below freezing and I didn't feel like doing it on my back in the driveway so I paid a local shop to put them in. The guy that did it doesn't do ball joints very often and did not freeze them (like I told him to) and had a very tough time installing them. He said he had to crank his air hammer up to 150psi to get them to go in. This concerned me a bit and even more after I started driving my truck. It now wanders a LOT and has a very inconsistent steering feel, sometimes it's fine, sometimes you have to correct a little bit for the wander and sometimes you have to crank the wheel around to get it to do anything.

I don't drive the truck very often and it's mostly just short hauls, so it didn't bug me too much until recently, I had a 12 hour tow with just a single car and it wore me out. My shoulders were sore from always correcting and I was just tired from having to concentrate completely to stay on top of the truck.

My question is this: did they screw up the joints when putting them in or did I just get a bad batch?

 

my truck drove better then ever after the xrf joints and alignment .when I installed mine they go in so tight I used the trucks weight along with the press to set them.one joint started to go in on a angle just at the beginning so I pop it out and reset it then it went in fine. I do not think they can be set in all the way on a angle buy check to so if they are in all the way and straight.try the aligment.

 

The caster is already maxed, I'll recheck toe but it was good before and the wheel is still centered. I may crank a little extra toe in into it and try it but I'd rather not mask the issue.

 

You don't install ANY ball joint using an impact wrench! By cranking the air up to 150 all he did was force the joint into an already tight interference fit. The joint probably got cocked a bit and the air impact ruined the joint! That's why all the GOOD front end tools are marked "DO NOT USE AIR TOOLS"! Aside from ruining tools and parts, you can take off a hand or put the tool thru your head if it fails! Your mech should eat parts and labor and find a new line of work

 

My thoughts were along the same lines but I generally work on small cars where forcing things is never a good idea. I wanted to make sure it was the same on the much heavier parts on my truck before I go ream the guy for it.

 

I would jack up the front see if there is any play up to down and side to side motion. Kinda sounds like he Edit
them up.

 

Bad move by ur mech. to use the air tool. Always use the clamps.

 

Yo, RWD, any update or is your mech still running