hey guys i kept hearing noise in the front of the maverick and it turned out to be upper ball joint i was wondering is it still safe to drive it for now i am planning on doing the ball joint and tie rods this winter when i have more time and i dont need to drive it please let me know thanks tom
my brother "heard" the same noise from a chevy van and wanted to wait till he could afford it, I told him they are not very expensive so intead of fixin it NOW he waited but not for long, it let go going over some RR tracks and BAM down it went, well to say the least he paid more than just a ball joint,... wrecker bill,lower control arm,upper A arm and tie rod end... just go ahead and fix it NOW and save your self some money and heartache and you will be glad you did. good luck! plus from a safety aspect you won't have a wreck and possibly hurt yourself or someone else.
Depending on how bad it is and how you will drive it, they can go quite awhile. The way these front ends are set up, the suspension is always got pressure on the stud & ball to keep the ball in the housing. The ones that usually let go are the ones that have pressure trying to pull them out. Even so, I'd definately replace them as soon as possible.
What does a loose ball joint sound like? I replaced my tie rod ends and everything and greased the whole front end and now when I go over a bridge or something I can hear something sort of rattle. If your tie rods are bad don't waste any time, change those as soon as possible. I just did it a few weeks ago on mine. I changed the pitman arm, and both inner and outer tie rods in an afternoon. If you got the right tools it takes no time at all, driving around with bad tie rod ends is just dangerous. My mom tottal wrecked her old '77 Corvette when the passenger tie rod let go and basically drug her off the side of the road, down a hill and into a tree.
clunking noise over every bump and the same noise when turning... the ball bounces around in the cup and the noise is transfered to the entire car because of metal on metal...
Yep, thats it. Don't do it when turning, just over bumps and stuff. Only does it on the passenger side. It's going to have to wait for now...
