so all 4 of by ball joints have went to shit, i was wondering if the dynatrac ball jonts are wroth the $500 or should i go with the factory for hundred! thanks guys

oh and thanks wayoflife. i wish i would have checked those 2 months ago.

 

I would go with free ball joints, if they are still under warranty.

 

i went to the dealer and they laughed at me. said i had to many mods. i talked to the the manger, and he said he is going to try to have it warranted (since i am military) and will let me know fri. it would be bad ass if they do. i only have 20,000 miles on it

 

Dynatracs are not available yet. They said about another three weeks.

 

Ordinarily I would agree, but people with no mods are losing ball joints, too.
The ball joints on my XJ never wore out the 14 years/186,00 miles I owned it.

 

i feel your pain on this one. my ball joints went out on my orange jk when it only had 7500 miles on it. dealership said they wouldn't warranty it because of my mods.

regarding the dynatrac ball joints, they are expensive but should be the last set you will ever need to buy. as mentioned, they aren't available just yet but should be very soon. for now, i just installed a set of crown replacement ball joints.

 

How do you know if your ball joints are bad? Clunking?

Flash

 

bad ball joints can make your front end feel loose and can instigate death wobble. you can tell if they are bad if you see "radial movement" in them. this is side to side movement and there should be none. a little "axial movment" is normal and that is an up and down movement.

to check for this, you can jack up your front wheel, grab it at the 12 and 6 position and push it opposite each other in and out. here is a video of what you should NOT be seeing...

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=152282577846

this ball joint is really bad and typically, movement is measured using a dial indicator.

 

The video in WOL's post is a good one.

Here are the numbers from the factory service manual:

Radial (side-to-side) movement in the upper ball joint should not exceed 0.060" (1.5mm).

Axial (up and down) movement in the lower ball joint should not exceed 0.050" (1.25mm).

 

Awesome. Thanks for the replies! This forum rocks!

Flash