lower ball joints can't seem to find them.

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champney008

Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2014
Messages
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Location
Florida
My Car
71 MACH 1 351C 4V RAM AIR
Maybe someone can help.... I can't find anywhere that sells the lower ball joint by itself, everywhere I look it is selling the complete lower control arm with ball joint. Does anyone know of any place ?

Appreciated,

Nick

71 mach 1 351 c 4bbl

 
How difficult is it to just replace the ball joint? I was under the impression that most people replace the whole arm because of the way our original ball joints are installed. It would seem the original arms would be OK in most cases so replacing the ball joint alone makes some sense to me. Do the arms really wear out?

 
How difficult is it to just replace the ball joint? I was under the impression that most people replace the whole arm because of the way our original ball joints are installed. It would seem the original arms would be OK in most cases so replacing the ball joint alone makes some sense to me. Do the arms really wear out?
The ball joints are riveted on so to replace you need to use an air chisel to get the rivets off. I have done it once and it was a lot of work. The replacement ball joint is approx $30 and a new arm is about $50 and you get new bushings with them. I guess that if you are trying to keep original parts replacing just the ball would be what you want but you won't have the rivets anymore. With the replacements you can't tell the difference. I just replaced the whole arms and you really can't tell the difference and saved myself a lot of extra work and headaches. To each his own though, its just a matter of preference.

 
Thank you, jbojo. That makes sense. Champney, I did not intend to derail your thread, but I'm about to do some front end work as well so your post was very much in line with my thinking. I'm pretty sure I'll just replace the entire arm as others have done.

 
Thank you, jbojo. That makes sense. Champney, I did not intend to derail your thread, but I'm about to do some front end work as well so your post was very much in line with my thinking. I'm pretty sure I'll just replace the entire arm as others have done.
+1. It's very straight forward.

 
How difficult is it to just replace the ball joint? I was under the impression that most people replace the whole arm because of the way our original ball joints are installed. It would seem the original arms would be OK in most cases so replacing the ball joint alone makes some sense to me. Do the arms really wear out?
The ball joints are riveted on so to replace you need to use an air chisel to get the rivets off. I have done it once and it was a lot of work. The replacement ball joint is approx $30 and a new arm is about $50 and you get new bushings with them. I guess that if you are trying to keep original parts replacing just the ball would be what you want but you won't have the rivets anymore. With the replacements you can't tell the difference. I just replaced the whole arms and you really can't tell the difference and saved myself a lot of extra work and headaches. To each his own though, its just a matter of preference.
Thank you I ordered the whole lower arm today it is a lot easier then taking apart the old ones, thank you for the opinions and experience made my decision easier thank you !

 
champney008, if you don't mind to say, where did you order your arms from? Are you going back with the stock arms? That is my plan. I will probably order upper control arms, lower control arms, and a larger sway bar. Are you just doing lowers?

I know everything up front is worn out on mine. Based on the recommendation of several members here I plan to also add subframe connectors to stiffen things up a little. We'll see how it goes.

 
champney008, if you don't mind to say, where did you order your arms from? Are you going back with the stock arms? That is my plan. I will probably order upper control arms, lower control arms, and a larger sway bar. Are you just doing lowers?

I know everything up front is worn out on mine. Based on the recommendation of several members here I plan to also add subframe connectors to stiffen things up a little. We'll see how it goes.
http://www.laurelmountainmustang.com/t/model-years/1971-73?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=lower+control+arm

Yes going back with stock arms for now I did not get all new front suspension I took everything out sandblasted and powder coated it all. I can post pics later if interested . advance auto has a great discount look up on google Advance auto discount it will give you codes for 30-50 off it is a promotion they have going on at this time till the end of the month. The link above has a great suspension kit .

 
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