Gen1 upper control arm ball joint question

[youreaspeedemon]

New to me 2010 6.2l
Going through suspension stuff and it appears that the upper balljoints are not a serviceable part and only available with the uca

Same with cv boots only with the axle shaft and abs modules only available as a whole unit

I grow tired of this tactic from manufacturers on a vehicle that isn't that old.

So I'm wondering if anyone has pressed out the upper ball joint and determined the size and found a suitable replacement, I have searched and haven't found anything promising.

That said I'm wondering if anyone has junk UACs laying around after replacing the whole arm that I may be able to play around with to see if I may be able to come up with something.

 

[2012SCSVT]

OEM style upper control arms are very affordable, I would say it's a better overall value to replace the entire arm rather than tool up and try to replace the wearable components in it.

 

[youreaspeedemon]

$340 for both sides from partsgiant, sure not that pricey but it's just the principle

Plus the additional time of removing the shock/strut assembly to get access to the inner bolts to replace the arm

The inner bushings look fine and with the right tools you can press out and press in new balljoints in probably less than an hour including jacking and removing tires

All that said I have the UCAs in my cart along with bunch of other stuff that I need to do. I'm catching up on maintenance not done by the previous owner trying to make it safe and reliable

 

[CleverGirl_]

There’s a huge thread on this somewhere on this site.

 

[youreaspeedemon]

There’s a huge thread on this somewhere on this site.

I've searched a bunch, maybe I'm not using the right keywords or something. Only threads I've found are posts that say it's not serviceable.

The ball joint was pressed into the control arm from the factory that produced the part so it can be pressed out, use a micrometer, take some measurements and find a suitable replacement, press it back in on the truck.

Parts are typically more serviceable than manufacturers have OE replacement parts for, in this case it's possible that the UCAs were manufactured by a parts supplier/vendor and provided as a whole unit. (just a guess)

Plus if you make the job more parts heavy and labor intensive they win on the parts and labor at the dealership when it comes in for service

They're likely a fairly common size balljoint. I'll probably end up replacing the UCAs and mess around with mine once they're out to see if I can find a match and help the community here.

 

[CleverGirl_]

@TomDirt didn’t you do extensive research on this? I remember seeing someone go through this once already

 

[Jhollowell]

Looks like Rock Auto has them pretty cheap
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=9543456&cc=1447336&pt=10401&jsn=1493

 

[youreaspeedemon]

Looks like Rock Auto has them pretty cheap
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=9543456&cc=1447336&pt=10401&jsn=1493

I appreciate the reply

I've used moog before and for most things the quality is typically acceptable sometimes not so much and sometimes they appear better than factory.

This situation is a matter of can it be done and has it been done. I just replaced all struts and shocks and half shafts and have plenty of things to throw money at this truck.

I'd prefer to stick with fomoco or the OE manufacturers of parts but that OE parts list for fords doesn't seem like it's readily available

I'm looking at ignition coils, not sure if I saw it on here or somewhere else but it looks like Denso coils are OE without the fomoco stamp

I've have a 2003 M3 with 250k miles on it and use fcpeuro pretty exclusively for parts (lifetime warranty on everything they sell). They make it super easy because they list
BMW stamped parts (more expensive)

OE - original equipment (no stamp or ground off stamp)

OEM - original equipment manufacturer (meaning they made one of the parts on that car or for the car brand but not necessarily one that is listed)

 

[Jhollowell]

I've had Moog Lower Ball Joints on my truck for several years now and so far no issues. From what I've heard and seen the UCA's are one of the lightest loaded parts in our front suspension so I'd be fine using Moog or some other brand especially at 1/3 the cost.

 

[TomDirt]

@TomDirt didn’t you do extensive research on this? I remember seeing someone go through this once already

The Gen 1 UCA's were designed to be as inexpensive as possible (IMHO) as it was a limited production version of the cash cow F-150.
(That's why the leaf springs, brakes, spindles, shock buckets, etc were off the shelf parts).
FoMoCo didn't know if the Raptor version would do well; the first models came out at the tail end of the Real Estate crash, and a stamped steel UCA with a mass-produced ball joint & bushings was probably dirt cheap.