Ball Joints

[SHOman247]

i went to get my car aligned today and they said i need 2 new lower ball joints which i do...there shot to ****...anyway he quoted me at 504 for 2 lower control arms labor and an alignment...that sound like a fair price?...or should i do them my self...another question can u get the ball joints seperate or do u have to buy the whole control arms? how hard are they to replace and can i get them from a local auto parts store?

Thanks
Greg

 

[LaTechSHO]

it is not a big deal to replace yourself.....

they do not come separate of the control arms, which i believe run in the $70 dollar range....


I believe the control arms are SHO specific, so you might want to make sure the parts guy at the parts store knows you have an SHO...

If you don't want to get dirty... %500 dollars is what i would call average for what a shop will charge you for that service... figure $140 for the ball joints... so they will charge you $250 for them... $50 for the alignment and $100 for labor... all rough estimates...

I would and have done it myself ... as i said..its not a big deal... once you get the wheel off you are looking at maybe 4 nuts/bolts per side... and some prying and maybe a little cussing... once i got the first side done the second side only took me 30 minutes... and i was changing out all the bushings and tie rod ends as well



good luck whatever you decide to do

 

[rangerj]

If you do it yourself get Dana or Moog aftermarket lower control arms. Both have greasable ball joints.

The SHO lower control arm is easily double the size of the regular Taurus/Sable lower control arm, and they are "left" and "right".

The new lower control arm will have new ball joints and all new bushings.

The job is not that hard. Let us know if you want to try it. There are a few tricks to make it easier.
rangerj

 

[projectSHO89]

Best prices on the Moogs are from Rockauto. Less than $60 per side last I checked.

Steve

 

[SHOman247]

plans are for doing it next week...so i don't have acess to those stores so i'm planning on buying the 85 dollar trw ones....there's advanced napa az and murray's around me and carquest....which should i buy from?