Fordnatics List Archive

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: (email redacted)

Hi,
I have a 1993 LX 5.0 mustang with Eibach springs, Poly bushings,
etc..... I have a front lower ball joint going and am wondering how to go about fixing it. I was told by someone that I could replace just the ball joint
but I also was told that I would have to replace the entire control arm.
One other point is, one of my control arms has a grease fitting and the other
one is a greasles tefflon bushing. The greasless ones are the ones that come
from the factory. I bought the car as a demo with 6000 miles on it. I was
told from the dealer that sometimes they come through like that. Any comments????
Anyways, Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Mike.

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: (email redacted) (Scott Griffith, Sun Microsystems Lumpyware)

On Jun 20, Mike Freedman wrote:

> I have a 1993 LX 5.0 mustang with Eibach springs, Poly bushings,
> etc..... I have a front lower ball joint going and am wondering how to go about fixing it. I was told by someone that I could replace just the ball joint
> but I also was told that I would have to replace the entire control arm.
> One other point is, one of my control arms has a grease fitting and the other
> one is a greasles tefflon bushing. The greasless ones are the ones that come
> from the factory. I bought the car as a demo with 6000 miles on it. I was
> told from the dealer that sometimes they come through like that. Any comments????

The ball joints are a press-fit, and can be replaced. The joint is a
Moog K8259, and replacing it will require the use of a moderately
heavy press, but it can be done.

Now, on to the control arm. That sounds very, very fishy to me. The
dealer screwed you, most likely. The older design high-friction ball
joints had the grease fittings. The newer low-friction ones don't. The
older design hasn't been used on any Fox platform since 1984-5, if I
remember correctly. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong!

I'd guess that sometime during those nice, gentle 6K demo miles,
someone stuffed the car, and they repaired the damage with an older
control arm.

"Sometimes they come through like that" is the final refuge of a
snake, if you wany my opinion on that. No, they _don't_. Those arms
haven't beeen in active use on any Ford assembly line in many years,
to the best of my knowledge. There's no obvious way for one to "sneak
through".

If I were you, I'd go over the front end of that car with a
fine-toothed comb, looking for things including (but not limited to)
shifting of the K-frame on the unibody, poor crash damage repair, bent
spindles, strange alignment settings, and so on. I'd bet you a beer
that the big poprivet on that side that was used at the factory to
hold the camber setting on the assembly line was _long_ gone before
you took delivery on the car... Do you have any funny steering pull,
or tire wear patterns?

Sorry to sound so negative, but I think that there's a very good
chance that your Pony has some hidden wrinkles. Time to go look for
'em, and feel free to heap all the abuse on me you like if I'm wrong.

And people wonder why I hate dealers so bad...

-skod

- --
Scott Griffith, Sun Microsystems Lumpyware
expatriate SCCA New England Region Flagging/Communications worker
(and driver, of anything that turns both right and left,
and can pass tech...) Return Path : (email redacted)