2002 Ford Ranger 2WD Coil Spring Upper Ball Joint

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Morning Ford Friends.

Can anyone verify if this is a "replaceable" ball joint, it appears it is using Moog (appears Ford NLA
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) Part Number: K8738 .

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It looks nothing like the PN you listed. Does it have a snap ring on the under side? I'd guess the answer to your question is no.
 
Honestly you are better replacing the whole arm, the bushing are also worn and by the time you change everything out it cost almost the same. Aftermarket will be okay for this application, it is adjustable for alignment. The sealed units from Proforged from Rock Auto are not very expensive and good quality.
 
http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/~grant/ranger/ball%20joint/install.html

Found this, mine look like this.

I'm not sure MOOG is using an exact picture. The bushings are actually OK, I'm pretty sure I have the body shop and their pickle fork to blame for the boots being destroyed. I will look for the snap rings in a bit, but I'm not sure the OE have snap rings.
 
If it is an OE arm, there is no serviceable upper ball joint. All the aftermarket listings I show all have the not that they are for aftermarket arms only.
 
The flat/rectangular aftermarket arms are the ones where you can replace the ball joint. The OE arms were round and the ball joint could not be replaced separately.

As Trav suggested though, I'd just get replacement arms for the uppers and be done with it. That's what I've always done on these.
 
Yes! Usually made in Taiwan but to a high standard, I have had no issues with them on any car I have used them on. The Moog can come from anywhere these days and quality is not consistent sometimes even between 2 parts with the same part number. This is not the old Moog company when the parts were always good, that got sold.
 
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Originally Posted by Trav
Yes!


Thanks Trav. I assume they look stockish?

To answer the question about snap rings, not on the upper joints, and I'm pretty sure they are OE arms.

Hit the link i posted above and let me know what y'all think of it... (not mine) found it googling "ford ranger 2wd replaceable upper ball joint"

Bdcardinal, thanks as well assuming you do show Ford upper arms NLA?
 
Originally Posted by DuckRyder
Originally Posted by Trav
Yes!


Thanks Trav. I assume they look stockish?

To answer the question about snap rings, not on the upper joints, and I'm pretty sure they are OE arms.

Hit the link i posted above and let me know what y'all think of it... (not mine) found it googling "ford ranger 2wd replaceable upper ball joint"

Bdcardinal, thanks as well assuming you do show Ford upper arms NLA?


Not only are they NOT obsolete, I have a pair sitting right next to me for our hoopty Mazda B-series delivery truck. If a parts person told you they are obsolete, they need to look into a different line of work.

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When I did this work on my 2001 Ranger back in October 2013, I used Moog which has 2 lines.

K80054 & K80052 were made in the USA.
RK80054 & RK80052 were made in China.

~ $25 difference in each arm. RockAuto had the US made ones for $55 each.
 
Originally Posted by DuckRyder


Hit the link i posted above and let me know what y'all think of it... (not mine) found it googling "ford ranger 2wd replaceable upper ball joint"



The truck in the link has the original style round arms where the joints are not supposed to be replaceable. It does look like your truck still has those as well. Apparently whoever created that page was successful at it though, and the NAPA number they used crosses to the Moog number you posted and that is on Rock Auto, so I don't know.

If I remember right, the issue on the Ranger forums years ago was that the press fit was extremely tight, so it was generally more trouble than it was worth to even try anything other than just replacing the arm.

Judging from the pic Bdcardinal posted, Ford has since changed their design to something more closely resembling the aftermarket arms with rectangular arm sections instead of perfectly round, but that ball joint doesn't look like it's going anywhere!
 
Originally Posted by benjamming
When I did this work on my 2001 Ranger back in October 2013, I used Moog which has 2 lines.

K80054 & K80052 were made in the USA.
RK80054 & RK80052 were made in China.

~ $25 difference in each arm. RockAuto had the US made ones for $55 each.


The Moog "R" line is their economy line to compete (price-wise) with all the other stuff coming from China. That being said, I've got Moog Problem Solvers on the front of my '98 Ranger that I completely rebuilt several years ago. They've been good for +100K miles and my Ranger drives really smooth down the highway.
 
Sorry for the the radio silence, been in the middle of spring bushings and CalTracs...

I appreciate the feedback, I'll check out the pro forged and see wha they cost, honestly if I can get the MC I'll probably do that...
 
Believe it or not you may find the dealer is cheaper or almost as the same price as rock when you include S&H. Always check with the dealer first, if you have no connections for a % off look at the ones online. I got a brand new, not reman PS rack for a VW from a dealer for $250 less than a Cardone reman from AA or Rock, granted they were blowing them out of the system but it happens quite often.

If not the Proforged is the better bet IMO, I see how they hold up in the salt belt and there is no comparison, the finish on them holds up as well or better than OE.
The joints boot and bushings are also high quality, not cheesy low end bushings like the Moog. I was a Moog guy for decades, they were the go too but bad things happen to good companies.
 
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Trav, that's been my experience as well, I will almost always go OE if I can get it. I've found in most cases aftermarket is more trouble than it is worth.

Gonna be a few weeks at least before I get this done, but I'll report back when I do.

dbcardinal, appreciate your efforts. if you wanna fool with a mail order let me know via PM.

Ben and 01ranger : appreciate the personal experience.

Looks like the lower lower ball joint is Motorcraft MCSOE55. But I have issues with the online parts lookups obviously. The fact that rangers were made in 2wd with both coils and torsion bars (apparently) just serves to make it more confusing.
 
I see that too, in a case like this I get the OE number and make sure the part on Rock fits that number on the info page. This is a normal everyday go round with most German cars. bdcardinal is a good guy he will you out I'm sure if nothing else give you the OE number.
 
F87Z-3050-BA / MCSOE-55 is the part number for the lower ball joint for 2wd with coil spring. We used Moog on our parts truck since we didn't actually have them on the shelf, bad parts person I know, and we had a time crunch issue.

The 2wd Rangers with front torsion bars in that time-frame were the Edge models, not to be confused with the Edge SUV that showed up a few years later.
 
So to close the circle on this:

The ball joints were all toast, at less than 80,000 I would be a little torqued about that if not for the accidents. The tie rods were fine, but seemed a bit foolish to split them and pay for an alignment when they are relatively inexpensive so the outer tie rods got replaced.



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Mine did not have the eccentrics and washers, but color coded plates with obvious hole offsets...

It aligned within specifications, but the right really needs eccentrics...

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I do think these could have been pressed out, would have added half a day and frankly my time is worth more than I would have saved.

Splash shields don't wrap around the arms as nicely with the new squarish ones though.

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Getting hard to find good tires to fit Rangers, at least 2WD non Edge ones...

Yokohama served well in the past. Road force put the red dots close to the stems on all 4 which is not what Yoko says, unless the stem is also the point of minimum radial runout...
 
I posted on this thread a year ago, and I will again. My wife's favorite vehicle is a '98 Ranger with the manual 5-speed. She's told me that when this vehicle dies or is in an accident, I need to find a vehicle similar to it, as in a 5-speed Ranger. (I need to tell her she might not get that, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it) I've had excellent results with Hankook straight-tread tires. They are quiet and last a long time. My wife takes some long trips with this vehicle and she drives the speed limit...and then some. However, I live on a gravel road, so when the roads get bad, she drives an AWD vehicle instead of her Ranger. The suspension was replaced with Moog parts WAY over 100K miles ago and they are still holding up good. I must have got the good ones.
I do feel sorry for some of the Ford parts men when a customer comes in wanting the replacement ball joints ONLY when the vehicle had been previously replaced with aftermarket control arms that have the replaceable ball joints. I'm sure some of the "know-it-all" customers leave feeling that the parts (wo)men are complete idiots.
In general, Ford truck suspension parts won't last 100K. Doing lots of Ford truck suspension work, I used to think it was just our winter road salt doing it, but I've found out my statement is true on the last two Ford trucks that I've purchased. One was an Explorer out of Texas and a Navigator I purchased out of California. Both vehicles needed complete suspension rebuilds right at about 100K miles. Still, it wasn't an expensive job since all the labor was donated.
 
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