Hey guys,

My 240 has been in need of ball joints for a while now. I finally got them in today! What should of been a simple 45 minute job,(I was doing it at the shop where I work) turned into a two and a half hour can of worms. The right side went smoothly but the left had a bolt the was broken flush for God knows how long and a bolt that required a lot of hammering and heating to remove. The broken bolt ended up being drilled out and the hole tapped. I used high strength bolts that actually came off of a Ford 7.3L diesel motor, WITH anti-seize might I add. In the end it all worked out, thankfully! Steering and handling was much improved also.

The old ball joints appeared to be TRW units. They where replaced with Moog parts. These have grease fittings which are wonderfull in my opinion. Hopefully they will last for quite a bit! This concludes my spiel, thanks for your time.
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Teach a man to fish and he will never go hungry. Teach a man to rob a bank, he will never go fishing again.

I've had good luck with all the MOOG stuff I've purchased, both for my Volvos and Mercedes -Benzes.

The MOOG parts with the Zerk/grease fitting seem to be very solid parts, but I do NOT like the castellated nuts that mine came with, and the ball joint, IIRC, would not seat easily and kept spinning as I tried to torque down to the strut anchor.

Still, good parts in a sea of aftermarket crap.

IIRC, would not seat easily
what is an IIRC please.

IIRC = If I Remember Correctly

I do understand your frustration. What I did for that was use a vise to hold down the plate while prying up on the ball joint with a bar. That caused enough resistance in the ball/socket allowing the nut to spin instead of the whole assembly. I also had an impact gun on hand which also helped greatly. If done correctly no damage should result.
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Teach a man to fish and he will never go hungry. Teach a man to rob a bank, he will never go fishing again.

I just replaced an inner tie rod with a moog part. I was impressed with the quality and it came with lock thread I believe. Didn't use any. O'Reilys actually had it to there local store in less than 24 hrs for the same price as it would have cost having it shipped in 3 days from most internet sites.

Hi transit wind,

Where did you buy your inner rod ends? For a CAM or ZF rack?

I ask as AutoZone says their private brand is Moog/TRW in their Duralast brand boxes. They did not fit as they were too long. These inner tie rods did not include a fitting to receive a Zirk to pump more grease into them as part of a recurring steering rack service.

I have a set of Raybestos/Dayna/Spicer made in Taiwan. Not very good from Carquest.

I have a set of Lemforder from a local import parts house at about 20$ a piece and are made in South Korea. Much better than the Raybestos/Dayna/Spicer, yet no option, like a set screw you can remove, to install a zirk fitting to pump fresh grease in there.

Please advise.

cheers,

dud.
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I bought mine from amazon for 43 a piece plus 6 bucks for shipping. It was actually cheaper than purchasing through my shop (we could get it for about 55 each).
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Teach a man to fish and he will never go hungry. Teach a man to rob a bank, he will never go fishing again.