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Jeff;
The upper bjs are not loaded nearly as heavilly as the lowers...they just basically locate the upper end of steering knuckle...that's why they're smaller and rarely go bad...the lower bj can be checked by using your Tommy bar (or another possibly larger, longer lever) to check for slop by levering against the two parts...it's not an exact science because the whole assembly is under serious tension from the spring...and you also wouldn't want to damage the boot in the process...and you'd only see the slop once it was a lot and the bj certainly would need to be changed then...a small amount just might not be easilly detected...
...(lets see if I get this right) on the top of the spring rests the corner weight, the bottom of spring is connected to the lower A-arm, but the spring is compressed between the two A-arms, so the net effect is that the lower ball joint is constantly under tension (this is also why the lower A-arm falls to the ground semi-harmlessly with a lower bj seperation).
The best and most accurate way to check the lower bj is to release the spring tension from the assembly and bj, then check it...remove wheel, jack up corner supporting lower A-arm...support vehicle at frame (crossmember)...loosen (old) castellated nut or (new) nylock, when fully loose, gently lower the lower A-arm a bit, allowing knukle to seperate from bj...if it doesn't immediately on its own, help it with some taps...once seperated, lower the lower A-arm with jack...bj is now free and able to be checked. Assembly is as they say, the reverse of disassembly.
If it was me, I'd drill and thread in a zerk fitting (from below) which would allow greasing. Maintenance-free is just another name for unmaintainable!
Good Luck
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