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Moog Upper Ball Joint just took a crap on me

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    #1

    Moog Upper Ball Joint just took a crap on me

    My passenger side Moog upper ball joint I installed in the spring took a crap on me. Thank god I was going slow and didn't' get on the highway yet or it could have taken out my whole car. (and me with it)

    It looks like the screws that fasten it to the upper control arm sheared off or something. It's dark out and cold as hell outside. I'm going to have to fix this at my office's parking lot to get home.

    Wee!

    I'll snap a picture of the carnage when I start the disassembly.

    Wish me luck!

    '78 LTD | '87 Grand Marquis | '89 Crown Vic (RIP) | '91 Grand Marquis (RIP) | '94 Town Car (RIP) | '97 Town Car (RIP)
    Tags: balljoint, failure, moog, upper ball joint
    #2
    Thank God you are safe - that could have been REALLY bad!!!


    "Hope and dignity are two things NO ONE can take away from you - you have to relinquish them on your own" Miamibob

    "NEVER trade your passion for glory"!! Sal "the Bard" (Dear Old Dad!)

    "Cars are for driving - PERIOD! I DON'T TEXT, TWEET OR TWERK!!!!"

    Comment

      #3
      this makes me think I should check the nuts on mine.

      Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein
      rides: 93 Crown Vic LX (The Red Velvet Cake), 2000 Crown Vic base model (Sandy), 2003 Expedition (the vacation beast)
      Originally posted by gadget73
      ... and it should all work like magic and unicorns and stuff.
      Originally posted by dmccaig
      Overhead, some poor bastards are flying in airplanes.

      Comment

        #4
        I've not had that happen to a bolt-on, though to be honest I always thought it looked a bit hinky to hold all that together with such small fasteners. Usually they are a grade 8 though. I wonder if you ended up with grade shite bolts instead.
        86 Lincoln Town Car (Galactica).
        5.0 HO, CompCams XE258,Scorpion 1.72 roller rockers, 3.55 K code rear, tow package, BHPerformance ported E7 heads, Tmoss Explorer intake, 65mm throttle body, Hedman 1 5/8" headers, 2.5" dual exhaust, ASP underdrive pulley

        91 Lincoln Mark VII LSC grandpa spec white and cranberry

        1984 Lincoln Continental TurboDiesel - rolls coal

        Originally posted by phayzer5
        I drive a Lincoln. I can't be bothered to shift like the peasants and rabble rousers

        Comment

          #5
          Well it's all back together now. Took maybe less than an hour to get the old one out and put the new one in. I was lucky that AutoZone actually had one in stock (not Moog, but it's greasable so that's something.) and I had $20 in rewards points on my card. Final price of the repair ended up being like $15? I have an AutoZone gift card too but I didn't have it on me.

          From the looks of it, the nuts must have backed out on the bolts it attaches with. They all had lock washers on them but I guess for whatever reason they didn't work. The replacement ones came with new jam nuts. I put a liberal amount of red threadlock on there as well for good measure. Driver's side seemed to be holding up fine.

          It must have been working its way out over time because I've been noticing the car was pulling a bit this past month. Car drives great now. With the new balljoint it doesn't pull at all and the wheel is dead straight.

          I was lucky my upper control arm wasn't bored out from the spindle being mashed up in the hole.

          On with the pics!

          Front:
          Click image for larger version Name: front.jpg Views: 1 Size: 229.8 KB ID: 1276944

          Side:
          Click image for larger version Name: side.jpg Views: 1 Size: 218.2 KB ID: 1276943

          Underside:
          Click image for larger version Name: underside.jpg Views: 1 Size: 154.6 KB ID: 1276942

          Out:
          Click image for larger version Name: balljoint.jpg Views: 1 Size: 246.0 KB ID: 1276945
          The old one looked okay besides the boot housing getting trashed but the joint was super sloppy now so it was good I was able to find a new one to replace it with before driving home.
          Last edited by slack; 01-15-2015, 03:18 AM.

          '78 LTD | '87 Grand Marquis | '89 Crown Vic (RIP) | '91 Grand Marquis (RIP) | '94 Town Car (RIP) | '97 Town Car (RIP)

          Comment

            #6
            WOW, and this is MOOG!! It's good that you're ok!
            "To Find yourself, you must first lose yourself"

            -1973 Volkswagen Bus Westy
            -1986 Honda Magna 700cc
            -1989 Lincoln Town car Signature Series
            -2011 Subaru Outback

            Comment

              #7
              Wow....if that's Moog i imagine it should be covered under warranty, I'd at least try to contact them. Glad you're safe mang.
              -Phil

              sigpic

              +1982 Ford LTD-S Police Car. Built 351w, Trickflow 11R 190 Heads, Holley Sniper EFI, RPM Intake+ Hyperspark dizzy, WR-AOD, Full exhaust headers to tails. 3.27 Trac-Lok Rear. Aluminum Police Driveshaft. Speedway Springs+Bilstein Shocks, Intermediate Brakes, HPP Steering Box.

              +2003 Acura CL Type S 6-speed

              Comment

                #8
                The torque spec on those bolts is actually a lot less than you'd think, they are small enough that it's easy to strip them. Especially when you already have large tools in your hand and have had to strong-arm everything else to that point.
                Regardless, I'd definitely buy my own grade 8 to use if there is any question about the grade of the ones provided.
                Pete ::::>>> resident LED addict and CFI defector LED bulb replacements
                'LTD HPP' 85 Vic (my rusty baby) '06 Honda Reflex 250cc 'Baileys' 91 Vic (faded cream puff) ClifFord 'ODB' 88 P72 (SOLD) '77 LTDII (RIP)
                sigpic
                85HPP's most noteworthy mods: CFI to SEFI conversion w/HO upperstuff headers & flowmasters P71 airbox Towncar seats LED dash light-show center console w/5 gauge package LED 3rd brake light 3G alternator mini starter washer/coolant bottle upgrade Towncar power trunk pull underhood fuse/relay box 16" HPP wheels - police swaybars w/poly rubbers - budget Alpine driven 10 speaker stereo

                Comment

                  #9
                  That'll make you pucker up.

                  Alex.

                  Comment

                    #10
                    I'm sick of buy new parts that are junk right out of the box!
                    More importantly, glad you're OK!
                    Summer car-> 1988 Lincoln Town Car, triple blue, 335,xxx km. New HO 5.0 in and running. Bought 2006/08/22. June 2017 PotM!
                    Winter vehicle-> 1995 Ford F-250 XLT SuperCab 4x4, 284,xxx+km. AKA "Brutus" 460/E4OD/4.10 axles and 12 MPG. Bought 2019/08/14

                    Originally posted by phayzer5
                    I drive a Lincoln. I can't be bothered to shift like the peasants and rabble rousers

                    Comment

                      #11
                      woah that sure is scary!
                      ~David~

                      My 1987 Crown Victoria Coupe: The Brown Blob
                      My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320:The Benz

                      Originally posted by ootdega
                      My life is a long series of "nevermind" and "I guess not."

                      Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
                      But, that's just coming from me, this site's biggest pessimist. Best of luck

                      Originally posted by gadget73
                      my car starts and it has AC. Yours doesn't start and it has no AC. Seems obvious to me.



                      ​

                      Comment

                        #12
                        that's a new one! glad you are ok mang!

                        1986 lincoln towncar signature series. 5.0 HO with thumper performance ported e7 heads, 1.7 roller rockers, warm air intake, 65mm throttle body, 1/2" intake spacer, ported intakes, 3.73 rear with trac lock, 98-02 front brake conversion, 92-97 rear disc conversion, 1" rear swaybar, 1 3/16" front swaybar, 16" wheels and tires, loud ass stereo system, badass cb, best time to date 15.94 at 87 mph. lots of mods in the works 221.8 rwhp 278 rwt
                        2006 Lincoln Town Car Signature. Stock for now
                        1989 Ford F-250 4x4 much much more to come, sefi converted so far.
                        1986 Toyota pickup with LSC wheels and 225/60/16 tires.
                        2008 Hyundai Elantra future Revcon toad
                        1987 TriBurner and 1986 Alaska stokers keeping me warm. (and some pesky oil heat)

                        please be patient, rebuilding an empire!

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Thanks guys.

                          Yeah. Wouldn't have never expected that to happen. New balljoint so far has been perfect though so that's good.

                          I'm going to see about contacting Moog and see what they can do or what they say. I have pics and I kept the failed ball joint in case they need me to send it to them.

                          What scares me is that I think it had been failing slowly for a while now because if you know my post history, I've been trying to track down steering/suspension/control issues for months. I must have not noticed it when the car was jacked up because the suspension and weight probably pulled the ball joint back flush even if the bolts were lose. (Before it got jammed up as bad as it was the other day)

                          Crazy. Lesson learned, I should really take a closer look at things.

                          '78 LTD | '87 Grand Marquis | '89 Crown Vic (RIP) | '91 Grand Marquis (RIP) | '94 Town Car (RIP) | '97 Town Car (RIP)

                          Comment

                            #14
                            Is it the joint that failed or the hardware to attach the joint to the arm? Sounds to me in your original post that it was the hardware.
                            Nick


                            Past: 1967 Continental convertible, 1987 TC Cartier, 1996 TC DAE & Signature, 2002 LS V8, 2006 Zephyr, 2010 MKZ AWD, and many more.....
                            Current: 2010 F-150 Platinum Supercrew 4x4
                            Wanted: 1967 or 1969 Contnential sedan
                            Only in my dreams: A Continental Mark II

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Correct. It was the hardware that attaches the joint to the arm that failed. Riding with it falling apart seemed to make the joint itself a little bit sloppy when I took it off that's why I didn't reuse it.

                              '78 LTD | '87 Grand Marquis | '89 Crown Vic (RIP) | '91 Grand Marquis (RIP) | '94 Town Car (RIP) | '97 Town Car (RIP)

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