its a 2 WD with the little 4 cyl engine. today kinda sucked. i am no mechanic but my father in law has experience. bought two upper and two lower ball joints, 2 tie rod ends, all with grease fittings, two shocks, 2 sets of brake pads. got the tie rod ends off pretty easily. took off the entire spindle, finally after hours of trying we got the lower ball joint pressed out using a rental ball joint press from autozone. the directions on that thing suck. it was also bent. we couldnt figure out how to get the ball joint pressed out on the top ball joint. i went ahead and took off the upper arm hoping to press it out. what is the trick to getting the uppers pressed out? i tried every combination with the rental press, even pounding on it with a hammer. it doesnt have any c clip things, only metal wires. i believe i got the metal wires off. is there somthing else i am missing to get those upper ***** pressed out of the arm? i just read that the upper ball joints might have spot welding to keep them in place. huh? if so, can i pop them out or do i have to replace the upper arm?

 

Im not sure on a 99, but on my 02 the upper ball joints you have to buy the hole upper arm.

 

I also have a 99 4cyl 2wd. My upper ball joints were part of the arm.

 

Looking at NAPA auto parts online , Torsion bar suspension , you change the entire arm.
Coil sprung the uppers and lowers are press fit , or you can buy the arm assembly.
Coil sprung ball joints are held in with a large snap-ring.

 

not what i wanted to hear but thanks. i hope i can return the ball joints ( upper) and buy the arms. joints were 25-30$ each but i think the arms at autozone were 90$ each. crap! well after 130K miles i guess i have had really good luck so i shouldnt complain about it.

 

I'm telling you that it was not the case on my coil sprung. It was all built into the arm. There was no snap ring. I took the arm off and stuck it in my 20 ton press and couldnt get it out. I ended up cutting the thing open for the fun of it and it was all one thing.

 

Ya, right at about 130,000 is when mine crapped out on me

 

When I did my uppers I got the ones that you can press out, if you need to replace them later down the road. That way I wouldnt be spending around 200 to do just the uppers.

 

Ford may have made a design change early in production. It's possible there are a few out there with replaceable ball joints. Then switched over to 1-piece.
Are '98s replaceable ?

 

Just buy moog upper control arms with the replaceable ball joints.

 

mine wernt, But I am a 4wd. But from what I remember you cannot get ones without the whole arm.

What brand were you looking at for NAPA? If it was Moog, they make a "problem solver" for our trucks. You have to buy the Moog upper control arm with the ball joint pressed in. Then next time you replace them, you just press them out like normal.

 

thanks for all of the comments. i will buy the new arms and install friday and let ya know how it went. what is in front of me? i put on the new arms, pressed the lower ball joints back in, install the shocks, put the spindle back on, new brake pads, etc. anything i need to know? special instructions so that i dont die?
what about using a torque wrench with the recommended pressures? the father in law says hogwash and use your judgment. will this get me in trouble?

 

Use an impact. OR a breaker bar. I used a breaker on mine, and just tightened them as much as I could.

Just make sure after about 100 miles to go back and re tighten everything. They will loosen up a bit.

 

I hope you remembered to have the front end aliment done after replacing all the joints and tie rod ends?Most have a centric on one side of lower a-arms to = both sides and toe in will be off from the tie rod ends being replaced even if you counted the number on turns when removed and replaced it will still be off some.