Replaces
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Part Details
TRQ suspension kits are manufactured using premium raw materials and coatings for extended service life. Each TRQ suspension component is designed to be a direct, maintenance-free replacement to the stock unit. To extend the life of your steering and suspension components, TRQ recommends replacing components in pairs, sets, or kits. All products are fit and road-tested in our Massachusetts R&D facility to ensure we deliver on our promise of Trusted Reliable Quality.
Product Features
Our steering and suspension components are pre-greased and sealed for long life and do not require the extra maintenance typically required by greaseable versions.
Item Condition:
New
Attention California Customers:
WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including Lead and Lead Compounds, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer, and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.
Lifetime Warranty
This item is backed by our limited lifetime warranty. In the event that this item should fail due to manufacturing defects during intended use, we will replace the part free of charge. This warranty covers the cost of the part only.
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Shipping is not available to a P.O. Box, APO/FPO/DPO addresses, US Territories, or Canada for this item.
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Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.
Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.
In this video, we're going to show you how to replace the lower ball joint on this 2003 Mercury Mountaineer. We show you on the driver side, but the passenger side is the same procedure. It's the same part and similar process on these Mountaineers from '97 to 2010. The items you'll need for this are a new lower ball joint from 1AAuto.com; 15, 18, 19, 21, 24 and 30mm socket and ratchet; a piece of pipe for some leverage; pliers; snap-ring pliers; a flat-blade screwdriver; hammer; ball joint press; torque wrench; jack and jack stands, and locking pliers, depending on the condition of your sway bar link.
Start off by removing your hub cab and then remove these 19mm lug nuts. If you don't have air-powered tools, you want to loosen them up while the vehicle's on the ground, then jack up the vehicle and support it, and then loosen the lug nuts the rest of the way. Once you've removed those, you'll be able to pull it free.
Now, you want to break off the ends on the Cotter pin right here underneath your wheel knuckle and then you can either hammer it out with a punch or, if the Cotter pin is only sticking out on one side of the castle nut, you can actually just use your 24mm socket and ratchet to break it free. Then, just remove that nut and then put it back on just a few threads.
Remove the nut on the end of the axle and, obviously, if you have air-powered tools it's not a problem. You can have somebody hold the brakes and use a socket and breaker bar if you need to. You want to twist this nut back on until it's flush with the axle and just hammer it until you can see it move. Then come up here and just remove this 18mm nut. With that nut twisted on, again, just a few threads, hammer the wheel knuckle until it drops down. Then, using a 15mm socket and ratchet, you want to remove the nut at the top of your sway bar link. You can hold the bottom with a wrench if it's turning. You can see ours is turning and, in an ideal world, this would just loosen up and you could pull it down, but the top of ours just breaks off.
To help get it out, you want to jack up the other side of the vehicle, and this will lift the sway bar on this side, allowing you to get to the top of sway bar link easier. We'll just spray it with some penetrating oil. Then, using locking pliers, you want to hold onto it while twisting the nut on the bottom of the sway bar link. You'll notice that the plastic will start breaking away and that's fine. You just want to keep repeating the process until all the plastic is gone and you have better access to it. We'll fast-forward as Mike does this. When it gets to this point, you'll be able to remove it and slide it down and out. If it is jammed up, just use a hammer.
Now disconnect your tie rod end, so remove the Cotter pin from the tie rod and I break off the bent over section. I just break it off and then I'm able to pull out the rest of the pin. Then, a 19mm socket, ratchet and a breaker bar loosen it up. You want to take the nut all the way off and then just thread it back on a few threads. Then hit the steering knuckle with a hammer until it pops free. Remove the nut and take the tie rod off and set it aside. If the nut is still on the lower ball joint, hit with a hammer to break it free.
Now support your lower control arm. You can see I have jack stands underneath the frame in the front for both sides. Jack that up with a jack. Here again, make sure the axle is free. I'm not hitting that hard. You don't want to hit your axle too hard because you could damage the CV joints. I'm really just tapping it. Jack it up a little further and now just lift up on the steering knuckle and remove the nut from the lower ball joint. Now remove the nut at the top of the wheel knuckle and pull the upper control arm out of the knuckle.
Take the axle out. Then, you want to take the wheel knuckle and pull it off the stud on the lower ball joints. Just remove that nut the rest of the way. Put it back on there and then just pull the wheel knuckle down and off that stud while pulling your axle out at the same time. It can be a little difficult, but it will eventually go. It's a good idea to just keep it secured to the top of the upper control arm, so just put that nut back on halfway for now.
Using snap-ring pliers, remove the snap ring along the top of the ball joint. Once you get it about halfway, you can just use a flat blade screwdriver and pry it up the rest of the way. With the ball joint press, we've got a cup around the lower part of the ball joint and that there, with a hole through there, so just press the ball joint right down through. I'm just tightening the press and then I hit it with a hammer at the same time, and that just kind of helps to break the ball joint free.
On the left is the old ball joint; on the right is the new one from 1A Auto. They do look similar, but there's some slight differences. However, ours will fit exactly the same. Remove the nut from your new ball joint and then you want to just carefully pry this boot off. Then set up your ball joint press and push the ball joint back into place. Again here, I'm going to tighten it up and just use the hammer to shock it a little bit to help it work its way in.
Once it's all the way back in, just replace that boot and make sure it's on all the way. Take your snap ring and put the snap ring along the top and make sure it's all the way down. Now take your wheel knuckle and you can remove the nut at the top holding it to the upper control arm. Then you want to feed your axle through while putting it back on that stud for your ball joint. This can take some maneuvering, but it will go, and then when you get enough space in the lower ball joint, you want to just replace that nut so it will hold it in place there.
Now push your upper control arm back into the wheel knuckle and replace that nut. Take your outer tie rod and push it back down and into the wheel knuckle and replace that nut. Then you want to torque that to 50 foot-pounds.
Push your new Cotter pin through, or your old one if you managed to save it, then just bend the tabs in opposite directions. Torque the upper ball joint nut to 50 to 55 foot-pounds.
Now replace the axle nut. Tighten it preliminarily. Put a jack underneath your steering knuckle and this basically raises the knuckle onto the ball joint to hold the ball joint in place. You want to tighten that nut up to 70 to 75 foot-pounds, and then further if you need to, to get the Cotter pin through.
Now, you can lower the wheel knuckle and then twist in your grease fitting at the top of the ball joint. We actually end up putting in a 90-degree grease fitting so it's a little easier to grease, and just tighten it up with our 7mm wrench. Then, just top the ball joint off with some grease.
Now you want to replace your sway bar link and you could see that ours was badly destroyed, so we're going to use a new one. You just slide it up through and the order is washer, then bushing, then the lower control arm, then bushing, then washer, then that metal tube, and then another washer and another bushing. Then it should be the sway bar, but you can see that the sway bar is just a little bit too low, so if you jack up the other wheel, you can see the sway bar go up and now you can fit in that bushing. Push the sway bar link up through the sway bar and then do another bushing, then a washer and then the nut. Then just lower the other side and it will compress the sway bar link and then just tighten that up with your 15mm wrench and 15mm socket and ratchet. For your final tightening of the stabilizer link, you can see I've got the vehicle on the ground, and the jack's underneath holding the suspension up in its usual ride height, and then I want to tighten it up so that the bushings basically come out to the same spot as the washers, basically compress the bushings down.
We'll fast-forward as Mike replaces the wheel and then replaces those lug nuts and just tightens them up preliminarily. Then lower the vehicle and torque each of the lug nuts to 100 foot-pounds in a crossing pattern. Then torque this 30mm nut to 184 foot-pounds, and then just replace your hub cap.
We hope this video helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.
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Hi, I'm Mike from 1AAuto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years! We're dedicated to delivering quality auto parts, expert customer service, and fast and free shipping, all backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee. We've created thousands of videos to help you install our parts with confidence. That saves you time and money, so visit us at 1AAuto.com, your trusted source for quality auto parts.
In this video, we're going to show you how to replace the front upper control arm. This is a 2006 Ford Explorer. It’s basically the same for 2006 to 2010. We show you on the passenger side, but the driver's side is the same procedure.
Please click Subscribe to see all our other videos for Explorer, as well as other Fords and other makes and models. To get the part in this video, click the link down in the description and go to 1AAuto.com for thousands of parts for all your needs.
Use your lug wrench or a 19mm socket with a big ratchet or breaker bar, and loosen your lug nuts while the vehicle is on the ground. We’re using a lift, but a jack and jack stands can be used as well. Remove the lug nuts the rest of the way, and then remove your wheel and tire.
With the vehicle supported on jack stands, or on the lift, you want to just put a floor jack underneath and raise up the suspension just to take a little bit of the load off. You need an 18mm and you need a deeper socket to clear the whole stud. Use a nice big breaker bar for some extra leverage and pull. Mine's coming apart pretty easy. Once it gets easy, just go with a wrench, and you want to make sure that this stud isn't spinning. Usually it's not. Leave the nut in place here and use a ball joint fork and a large hammer to separate the ball joint from the steering knuckle.
We're going to spray the ends of the bolts that are at the top of the control arm with rust penetrant. These two bolts are 18mm. The nuts should have a tab that locks into the control arm, so you don't have to hold the nut side. Nice big breaker bar, 18 mm socket on the front one fits in nicely. You can loosen it up. On this side, we'll use a 3/8 because it's just a little smaller. Let’s get in there. The only problem is, it doesn't give us as much leverage. You can see the nut spinning around right now, but in a moment it's going to get caught on the control arm and it'll come apart. If need be, you can use a piece of pipe, put over your ratchet. Just be careful not to overload the ratchet, and apply pressure gently for more leverage. Remove the bolts, just make sure that the nuts don't fall down too far, like that.
Then the bottom of this is an 8mm. The wrench fits on, so if you need to you can hold it. Remove the nut, and once it gets to a certain point, you may have to lock onto the stud with some slip-jaw pliers. Hold it there to remove it the rest of the way. Take the nut out, and lift this up and out. Have a bungee cord ready, put it around to hold the knuckle in place, and then you can pull your broken control arm out.
On the left, you can see the original part out of our 2006 Ford Explorer. On the right, the new part from 1AAuto.com. It's going to install and function just the same as the original. The only differences are very minor and cosmetic. The beauty of these is that they come with the ball joint, so either if your ball joint is bad or your bushings are worn out, installation of a new control arm from 1A Auto is going to fix your problem.
New control arm from 1A Auto, I'm just going to take the new locking nut off. I have one of our bolts ready. Slide it into place, hold the end and through just for now to hold it in place. Same thing down here. Make sure you get your bolts in first. Then our caged nuts in place. Start the bolts on. With those in place, carefully take off your bungee, or whatever's holding the spindle. Just put that down in for now and start the nut. Now, we're going to tighten up for the bolts. We'll tighten them up enough so that the control arm can still move. Once you get it to a certain point, you can push it in and you can see where your washer use to be, so we'll just move right to there and we'll tighten up preliminarily.
This will give you a preliminary alignment, and we do suggest that you get your vehicle realigned after you complete the repair. Once you've done the rear, do the same thing for the front. Before we put the knuckle together, or torque anything, we're going to raise the suspension up to its ride position. So, there should be no weight on your jack stand, or a little bit of space between your jack stand and your frame, and then that usually holds the stud pretty well here. We'll tighten this up.
Now we'll torque our two bolts to 111 foot-pounds. Do a final check and make sure they're lined up where they were originally if it's for a preliminary alignment. Again, torque them to 111 foot-pounds. Tighten this nut to 41 foot-pounds. After everything's tightened up, let your jack down. Again, we do recommend a front wheel alignment after this repair.
Reinstall your wheel and tire. Start all your lug nuts by hand first; make sure they don't cross-thread. Use your lug wrench, socket and ratchet, or whatever and tighten them up preliminarily. Lower the vehicle onto the ground. Tighten your lug nuts to 100 foot pounds using a star pattern to tighten them.
Thanks for watching. Visit us at 1AAuto.com for quality auto parts, fast and free shipping, and the best customer service in the industry.
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Specify your vehicle's year, make and model to guarantee fit.
This part doesn’t fit a . Select from parts that fit.
If your vehicle isn't listed, search Steering & Suspension Kits
If your vehicle isn't listed, search Steering & Suspension Kits