Super duty Ball joints

pplblazerdude · Jun 21, 2016

Hopefully someone has a little advice for me about this. I have a 2003 Dana 60 from a ford f250 in my buggy. I noticed my balljoints had play in them last year so I went ahead and ordered a brand new set of spicer balljoints for it. Installed them and they have done great. Well the other day when I was checking the buggy over I noticed when I jack the front end up the ball joints are tight but when you first remove weight from the tire you can see the knuckle drop. I measured and it drops 1/16th of a inch. According to all the service manuals these would still be considered good from my reading. But my question is for the guy running these axles. What ball joints are you using and how often are you having to replace them? These have literally only been in maybe a year.

Thanks

gottagofast · Jun 21, 2016

I put moog ball joints in my 99 f350 dually 8 years and 70,000 miles ago... Still goin strong...

Not a wheeler but I tow regularly at 30,000 lbs gross and have 33" tires

Mortalis5509 · Jun 21, 2016

Re:

There is a mod that wayne did (alltech motorsports) that allowed the lower balljoint to be put into the top. That helped a lot of racers. I haven't done the mod or ran my knuckles but do I have same year you do. I have the dynatrac bj.

617_Racing · Jun 21, 2016

gottagofast said:
I put moog ball joints in my 99 f350 dually 8 years and 70,000 miles ago... Still goin strong...

Not a wheeler but I tow regularly at 30,000 lbs gross and have 33" tires

X2 on the moog. Got them on my 01 f250 DD/tow pig. Been holding up to driving the 8k pig like a race car for a few years now.

pplblazerdude · Jun 21, 2016

Mortalis5509 said:
There is a mod that wayne did (alltech motorsports) that allowed the lower balljoint to be put into the top. That helped a lot of racers. I haven't done the mod or ran my knuckles but do I have same year you do. I have the dynatrac bj.

What do you think about the dynatrac ball joints?

Sent from a undisclosed thinkin spot...

Neal3000 · Jun 21, 2016

Expensive^^^ but bomber looking

I used Moogs on my crawler with no issues

Mortalis5509 · Jun 21, 2016

Re: Re: Super duty Ball joints

pplblazerdude said:
What do you think about the dynatrac ball joints?

Sent from a undisclosed thinkin spot...

Haven't ran them yet. When I do I can follow up with you. A plus to them, they are rebuildable.

hokie_yj · Jun 22, 2016

pplblazerdude said:
What do you think about the dynatrac ball joints?

Sent from a undisclosed thinkin spot...

Mine have been tough as **** on these jack stands.

LightBnDr · Jun 22, 2016

Heads up I have been down the road. Don't put any ball joint in that isn't dynatrac!!

Moog, master pro, OEM etc. all garbage. They will not last off road. That's a guaranteed promise.

I have run OEM, master pro and moog. Same results. Only I have ripped the lower ball joints into 2 pieces which bound up my shafts and ripped the ears off my inners as well as exploded my front axle u joints. All because when they separate the outer knuckle rises and wedges the shaft in place. You stay on the gas and it's a crap storm of failure.

Point being, dynatrac is the only company making a lower BJ that uses a spherical heim in place of the OEM plastic shell with a snap ring on both sides of the heim. Plus the housing is machined from a solid billet versus the OEM is a cheese **** mild steel that is crimped around the ball of the lower stud.

I now run dynatrac lowers. I'am very happy with them. I didn't go uppers because that's not the ultimate failure point of the joints. It's the lower joint that is pulled from the body. So drop the coin. You won't be disappointed with the quality.

On a side note, I had to ream my lower BJ taper on my inner C so the upper joint would fully seat and center the outer knuckle. This pissed me off after waiting 3 weeks to get the joints and finishing the job on a Saturday at 5pm. So I couldn't call and ask about this.

Good luck. Don't ever run OEMs. Guaranteed they won't last.

LightBnDr · Jun 22, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVfeapriubg#t=25

I did my research brother. There really is not another design out there that can beat this strength

It's very possible that they designed their ball joints to work together as a pair so it may be why I had to ream my lower taper. It seems that customer service depts for all major companies are sales guys that TRULY don't know their product. They seem to know just enough to sell you on it. So ask a million questions before you order.

truckbroke · Jun 22, 2016

LightBnDr said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVfeapriubg#t=25

I did my research brother. There really is not another design out there that can beat this strength

It's very possible that they designed their ball joints to work together as a pair so it may be why I had to ream my lower taper. It seems that customer service depts for all major companies are sales guys that TRULY don't know their product. They seem to know just enough to sell you on it. So ask a million questions before you order.

For offroad use this is probably the way to go.. For on road use I`ve replaced many with OEM joints and they lasted very well. My truck right now has 251K on the driver side oem joints and are still tight. I took MOOGs off of it cause it was so tight it was like driving with hydraulic steering. I know your talking off road here so yep Dyna is probably the way to go. If its for offroad use and only has 1/16 of play why mess with it? Why not just runnem till there really bad? just asking here.

LightBnDr · Jun 22, 2016

Ask joho if he has any pics of what happens when you just run them till "they're bad". I'm saying all this from experiencing loose ball joints but then catastrophic failure.

I have $600 or so in repairs from OEM BJ failure. Not including the challenge of extraction when the "bad" ball joint fails. Thankfully they actually slip back together fairly easily if you are slow and methodical but you are still extracting in 2wd with someone pulling you. It ain't that fun

It's worth the $300 in at least doing lowers. Before you blow up axles and u joints

Of course I run 42" red labels which makes muddinmetal jealous so I could have a unique set of issues given my superior traction

pplblazerdude · Jun 22, 2016

LightBnDr said:
Heads up I have been down the road. Don't put any ball joint in that isn't dynatrac!!

Moog, master pro, OEM etc. all garbage. They will not last off road. That's a guaranteed promise.

I have run OEM, master pro and moog. Same results. Only I have ripped the lower ball joints into 2 pieces which bound up my shafts and ripped the ears off my inners as well as exploded my front axle u joints. All because when they separate the outer knuckle rises and wedges the shaft in place. You stay on the gas and it's a crap storm of failure.

Point being, dynatrac is the only company making a lower BJ that uses a spherical heim in place of the OEM plastic shell with a snap ring on both sides of the heim. Plus the housing is machined from a solid billet versus the OEM is a cheese **** mild steel that is crimped around the ball of the lower stud.

I now run dynatrac lowers. I'am very happy with them. I didn't go uppers because that's not the ultimate failure point of the joints. It's the lower joint that is pulled from the body. So drop the coin. You won't be disappointed with the quality.

On a side note, I had to ream my lower BJ taper on my inner C so the upper joint would fully seat and center the outer knuckle. This pissed me off after waiting 3 weeks to get the joints and finishing the job on a Saturday at 5pm. So I couldn't call and ask about this.

Good luck. Don't ever run OEMs. Guaranteed they won't last.

I will have to take a look at these? Are they rebuildable completely or just some parts of it?

94xjsport94 · Jun 22, 2016

I have moogs in my 02 Tow Digger and OEM's in my crawler front 05+. Interesting product.

LightBnDr · Jun 23, 2016

Sometimes it takes catastrophic failure, more than once to see the light

Just trying to offer my personal experience to what happens to OEM mass produced Chinese ball joints

gottagofast · Jun 23, 2016

I don't think anyone is arguing w you... Folks are just chiming in with their experience...

I need to rotate my front tires soon and you can bet I'll be looking hard at my joints...

It's also a given that success on pavement w 33's doesn't guarantee success in the rocks with 49's and whiskey... ????

pplblazerdude · Jun 23, 2016

gottagofast said:
I don't think anyone is arguing w you... Folks are just chiming in with their experience...

I need to rotate my front tires soon and you can bet I'll be looking hard at my joints...

It's also a given that success on pavement w 33's doesn't guarantee success in the rocks with 49's and whiskey... ????

This is a fact. I tell you though something scares the hell out of me about installing a 550 dollar pair of balljoints. About like installing high dollar ujoints

Sent from a undisclosed thinkin spot...

94xjsport94 · Jun 23, 2016

The moogs are my truck are roughly 10k old according to paper work and super tight but I noticed a little play like mentioned in this thread in my 05+ axle in the Jeep the other week. I can't move it by hand but there is a noticeable enough amount of play when letting it down off the Jack.

LightBnDr, what are the specs on your rig?

natedawgxj · Jun 23, 2016

When a joint breaks i the only time ive ever had issues with ball joints thats why ive upgraded to 300m ujoints. I have beat my buggy like it owes me money and never had issues unless ujoint lets go. Me myself i dont see the need to do the upgrade. If the balljoint doesnt let got itll be the C's. Just like everything else there has to be a weak link.

LightBnDr · Jun 23, 2016

For the most part ^^ that didn't make sense to me. Lol

I'm just a lil bitty tube chassis buggy with a 4.0L on 1tons and 42" red labels

I think if you wheel in a manner and terrain where you don't really have hard hookup traction, the joints won't fail the same way. You'll never sheer the studs. The only part you'll ever truly break is pulling the lower stud from the socket. When that happens, it destroys everything in its way

I run OEM greaseable front u joints. I have never broken one