ball joints

[turbospirit7]

Hey all...Was wondering how you would go about checking ball joints for play? What are some of the symptoms of having bad ball joints? Car is a 89 spirit turbo w/manual tranny. Most of the front end components are fairly new (struts, wheel bearings, tie rod ends, etc) The car mostly in 2nd or 3rd with pedal down about half way will shimmy on accel. plus going over bumps the front end makes a nasty noise....Any help????

[MiniMopar]

The shimmy may be a bad axle. The FSM says to try to wiggle the grease fitting and if the plate moves then the ball joint needs replacement. This never works for me, though. If you unbolt and sway bar and jack up a corner, you can grab the wheel and try to shake it in and out and also try to turn the wheel. If you feel any play or hear clunking, you should be able to spot issues with a ball joint or tie rod end.

[DeckSetter]

A lot of the time the car will shake when you're braking like your rotors are warped.

Basically, jack one side up, try to jerk the wheel off from different angles without loosening the lug nuts. If there's movement, you probably need balljoints. I've never unbolted the swaybar to do it. If they're really bad, you might even be able to feel movement with both wheels on the ground.

[Mike M]

For checking these type of ball joints I'd jack it up and put it on jackstands (!!) to make sure the car is stable. This usually works better with two people, one to wiggle and one to watch (boy, that sounds sick). Grab the bottom of the wheel with both hands and wiggle/push/pull it in and out, you can usually get a better wiggle while -not- under the car (especially if your only working on jackstands), so having another person to watch the balljoint for play is a good thing. Sometimes ya gotta push/pull fairly hard to really see how loose it is.

Checking tie-rods is similar (I know you didn't ask though =p) - have the steering wheel unlocked while you wiggle the wheel/turn it left to right and have someone check for play in the tie-rods.

Now, on to your actual problems. The shimmy is likely an inner CV joint, if they shimmy on accel but no other time thats probably what it is. Check for split open boots/play in inner joints. I've had boots look fine before and wasn't able to tell which axle was the problem, so sometimes you just gotta try one! If not, try the other!

Nasty noise? Like a clunk sorta noise? Sway-bar bushings like causing this sort of noise. Could be inner bushings or outer bushings. Inners are easy to check, jack it up and see if there is an gap between the bar and the bushing, if so they are bad. The outers are easy but a tad different, when the front end is jacked up the swaybar is twisted down so it can be hard to see if there is a gap (unlesss they are right screwed), I'd try jacking up on the arm to "level" out the sway bar and see if there is a gap.

I don't ever recall having a balljoint cause loud clunks (but could be possible, I suppose). So good luck!

[turbospirit7]

Well, haven't had a chance to check out the balljoints, but did notice looking under the car, my drivers side outer cv boot is shot!!! ripped almost all of the way around...d#@m it!!! those cv's are only about 2 years old. this will be like the third one new put on that side. I guess i need to go with somebody elses idea and check the motor mounts....bad motor mounts=bad cv joints is what i was told...correct? any other suggestions???

[mcsvt]

I would make sure you motor is level and centered. That could contribute to your CV's going bad so often. Time for some Poly mounts :)