Ford Powerstroke Diesel Forum banner

How do you know when your ball joints are bad?

1.8K views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  2003PSD  
#1 ·
Im getting a popping, so since the wheel bearings could be wiggled, I replaced both, the popping is still there when you hit a bump is that ball joints?
 
#4 ·
Ball joints

Jack the truck up and put a bar under the tire and lift up and down similar to checking bearings. Watch the ball joints while doing this and see if there is any play. Usually it helps to have a second set of hands to help. I usually find the top ball joints go bad before the bottoms. If any of them are bad, do yourself a favor and just replace them all.

You may also want to take a look at your sway bar link bushings. Mine were bad and caused a popping noise when I hit bumps.

Long winded, but hope some of that helped.:thumb:
 
#5 ·
I would also suspect the sway bar links. One of mine pops which I thought was ball joints until I had it aligned and checked out. Apparently pretty common and you just replace the whole link with a new link with bushings already installed.

Unhook the link to test the theory.
 
#8 ·
I had clunks when my sway bar links were bad... replaced both end links, and the bar bushings, real nice now...