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Ball Joints Argh!
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<blockquote data-quote="McStocks" data-source="post: 3086228" data-attributes="member: 129319"><p>In the 70s I was a mechanic in a Dodge dealership, specializing in front ends, brakes, and drivelines; I then later retired from teaching Auto Tech in a Technical College. </p><p>About once a week someone would come into the dealership stating that he or she had just come from Firestone, Goodyear, etc. and they were told, or <strong>shown</strong>, how bad their ball joints were - without that many miles on the car! On cars without McPherson struts and trucks there are two kinds of ball joints on each side - load carrying and follower. The load carrying joint is the one on the control arm that has the spring pushing down on it (normally the lower), and if you jack it up to unload it by that control arm, an OEM ball joint will probably have noticible play, which is absolutely fine until it gets worn to the max specification. Put a pry bar under the tire, pry up and down, and you can scare the crap out of a customer! The follower joint controls sideways forces and can't have any play. I had a bulletin from Chrysler stapled to the wall by my alignment machine that spelled that out that I would have the customer read!</p><p>I suppose that things haven't changed much since then - a combination of ignorance and getting paid on commission of sales! <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" alt="😞" title="Disappointed face :disappointed:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61e.png" data-shortname=":disappointed:" /></p><p>Steve</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="McStocks, post: 3086228, member: 129319"] In the 70s I was a mechanic in a Dodge dealership, specializing in front ends, brakes, and drivelines; I then later retired from teaching Auto Tech in a Technical College. About once a week someone would come into the dealership stating that he or she had just come from Firestone, Goodyear, etc. and they were told, or [B]shown[/B], how bad their ball joints were - without that many miles on the car! On cars without McPherson struts and trucks there are two kinds of ball joints on each side - load carrying and follower. The load carrying joint is the one on the control arm that has the spring pushing down on it (normally the lower), and if you jack it up to unload it by that control arm, an OEM ball joint will probably have noticible play, which is absolutely fine until it gets worn to the max specification. Put a pry bar under the tire, pry up and down, and you can scare the crap out of a customer! The follower joint controls sideways forces and can't have any play. I had a bulletin from Chrysler stapled to the wall by my alignment machine that spelled that out that I would have the customer read! I suppose that things haven't changed much since then - a combination of ignorance and getting paid on commission of sales! 😞 Steve [/QUOTE]
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