94-5.0

About mid week last week my wheels started squeaking really bad when you turned the steering wheel, sounded like the sound that polyurethane bushings makes on a bad control arm, but they make the sound when the steering wheel turns and DO NOT MAKE THE SOUND when the control arm moves (like going over a bump), so I started the car and stretched out beside it turning the steering wheel with my right hand and placing my left hand over the various components of the front-control arm assembly. I felt the tie rod, the strut, and noticed the squeaking seems to be coming from a vibration on the lower ball joint.

I've concluded it has to be the factory joint or a cheap replacement joint because it doesn't have a grease fitting.

Then, sunday the right wheel started popping going down the road, so I believe my ball joints may have bit the dust and I left her in the shop and have been driving my backup vehicle.

I plan on replacing them tommorrow afternoon; I've replaced ball joints in various vehicles before and I know that they are the press in type on this mustang. What I am wondering is if I have to remove the wheel-bearing assembly since it's not a part of the rotor to make room to work on it?

No help from these guys:

hiboostwoody

Alldata shows that you remove the lower control arm from the vehicle, clamp it in a vise, and use a ball joint press on it. I have done them in the vehicle by removing the spindle but this is tricky to do without screwing up the alignment. I also use a hoist and have the vehicle several feet off the ground though.

USMC1775

You are going to need an alignment any way you go about it, because you will have to remove the spindle to get the bj out...

Jack the car up, remove the wheel, brake caliper, spindle, then support the CA well from below, and use a bj press on it. Really not that hard once you figure out how the press works. Do not hammer the CA in any way though, that will ruin your geometry forever.

94-5.0

Well thanks for all the feedback guys! I got the ball joints and the removal tool and before I broke it open I drove it down to a local shop with a guy well acquainted with mustangs. We took it down the road and he pinpointed the squeaking to be as I thought, the ball joints. They are still good and firm though no major wear yet so I applied lithium grease and I'm sure it will hold up for a few weeks while I save up some money.

We also pinpointed that the crackling noise was coming from the control arm bushings. Under braking if you turn to the left the right control arm pops, and vise versa. He said it was a common problem with these cars.

So what I have decided to do is to buy the Ford Racing M-3075-D Front Lower Control Arm kit that comes with bushings and ball joints already installed. It runs $259.99 + shipping on Jegs.


On a side note,
I have also discovered the car has a bad vibration in the dash once it gets up to about 75mph that just gets worse as the speed increases. It vibrates whether or not the clutch is pressed in or not. The mechanic said it was most likely a motor mount or transmission mount causing the vibration. Do you guys concur?

hiboostwoody

It could be the mounts but there are lots of things that will cause that. If you have a tire with a flat spot, broken belt, or out of balance will cause that. Also could be a bad u-joint or driveshaft balance problem. That will resonate through the whole car if it's bad enough.

94-5.0

Yeah, I fear this is going to be a problem that will be pretty hard for me to identify alone. I'm pretty sure an experienced mechanic can put the car on a lift and check the transmission and motor mounts and check that off if that's not the problem.

Personally I don't think the motor mounts could be the cause of the problem because the car doesn't stop vibrating if you put it in neutral at a high rate of speed. Which would leave the transmission mounts and driveshaft u-joints/balance.

The gear shifter doesn't do much jumping around and there is no jolt in and out of gear when you apply high torque at low speeds so I could deduce that the transmission mount is good and it's most likely a drive-shaft problem. The wheels and tires are brand new so unless there's a broken belt in one of the tires I don't think that would be a problem either.

But alas, it would probably be cheaper for me to carry it to a mechanic than investing hours and hours of work knocking u-joints out and replacing them and that not be the problem.