HRPT Prep 2 - Front Ball Joint Replacement

Almost three years ago now, I replaced the upper ball joint on the driver's side of the Mustang.  The ball joint was not replaced because it was worn out but because of a cut to the rubber boot which caused it to lose grease.  Since it was not worn out, I only replaced the one side.  The was the right decision at the time but it has come back to haunt me.

I carefully removed the coil spring which is the worst part of the entire project.  With the upper control arm out, I checked the ball joint to confirm it was bad.  It moves quite loosely but does not have any slop in the joint itself.  However, as I moved it around, I noticed it wasn't the ball joint itself but the rivets which hold the ball joint to the arm were lose.  I'm glad I noticed before something broke and caused a large problem.

The proper replacement ball joint is a Moog K8142 which is a bolt in replacement for the original style which was riveted to the upper control arm.  Everything came in good condition and after grinding the old ball joint rivets, cleaning the control arms, and a couple bolts and it was installed.  The instructions state the three mounting bolts should be torqued to 14-19ft/lbs. but I went to 20 ft/lbs. with red High Strength Loc-Tite.

Reassembly of the suspension was fairly straightforward.  I greased the upper control arm itself and the ball joint before installing it.  I torqued the upper control arm to shock tower nuts to 90 ft/lbs. and used red Hight Strength Loc-Tite.  I then torqued the upper ball joint to 70 ft/lbs. and locked it in place with the supplied cotter pin.

I'll be going over the entire front suspension to make sure everything is torqued properly and to grease everything before long.  However, I think I'll move on to the hydraulic clutch installation since I have a few days off and it is a rather large project.