I just took the mustang in for a new inspection, I passed and got the stickers but the tech told me that my ball joints were FUBAR. I'm a little confused on a few things.

1. can the BJ be pushed out of the control arm and replaced seperate?

2. Should I just buy new control arms together w/ the new ball joints?

The shop was telling me the whole job, soup to nutts w/ parts and labor was going to run around 950 bucks. Sound reasonable to everyone else or sound like a hose job? Any opinions are more than welcome so chime in fellas.

Also how many ball joints are there on each side of the vehicle?

 

i did mine myself. I bought the SVT ones for like 197$ and installed them myself. Was a little bit of work though.

To answer your question about the BJ, I believe the only way is to buy a new Lower control arm....but not positive.

 

Steeda has the, "X5" ball joint sold seperate from the CA. I'm only thinking if they sell it seperate then it has to come out somehow, right? The tech at the shop told me the same thang, that the CA has to be purchased as a whole unit w/ the BJ. It doesn't make sense to me that a company like Steeds would sell just the Ball Joint of you need the whole unit. Damn I'm confused now.

 

That is true and I have noticed that too. Maybe it's just easier to install a whole new piece sense it will be off the car anyway. Why go through all that trouble and just replace the BJ. Just my 2 cents......good luck either way you go.

 

I just love all the guessing going on here.
http://iihs.net/fsm/?dir=61&viewfile=Lower Arm.pdf

Just get the GT500 lower Reverse L arms and be done with it.

Have them use vaseline when they charge you the $950 they want.
The lower control arms are $269 from moss muscle and installation
should be a snap. Not more than 2 hours labor per side.
And ask them if they will be reusing the one time use suspension
fastners or will they be purchasing the hardware unused and new
from Ford as it was from the factory?
Reusing is a big no-no. Your life depends on it.

 

157db, thank you for the diag, instalation instuctions and suggestion for the GT500 CA's. I appreciate the help.

 

Because replacing a perfectly good control arm is just stupid and a waste. Ford makes more money selling a whole new control arm, that's why they do it this way and it makes me sick.