Ball joint or CV shaft?

[telemike]

THe creaking squaking noise is coming from Driver side. Would that be ball joints or the CV?

 

[Best4x4]

It could be upper IFS control arm bushings, or the sway bar links. The upper/lower ball joints along with the CV are more of a popping sound vs creaking sound.

I've bought aftermarket uppers, lower ball joints with zerk fittings, and new CV's. My OEM original upper ball joints have torn boots so instead of just doing the job 3 times I'm going to knock it all out at once. Then I'm going to keep the old OEM CV's as my trail spares. The previous owner had the bars cranked up past 24inches so the CV's, upper/lower ball joints were pretty maxed out. I've fixed all the lift issues & have it sitting at 23 1/4 and I'm happy with that. When I first bought it turning into a parking space was something of a mission impossible due to the CV angles!!

Also from my days of Mitsubishi Montero Gen 1's with IFS in the front they clunked, popped, and made weird noises, but I never had a problem with any of them. IFS just has a lot of moving parts vs a solid axle setup and more things to make noise IMHO.

 

[telemike]

I'm gonna drop by a local shop tomorrow and see what they say. I had the wife turn the wheel back and forth and the creaking/squaking noise was from driver side wheel.

 

[digglesworth]

I've seen a thread in the tech library about adding grease fittings to tie rods. You drill a hole in the top, thread it and screw in a grease fitting. Don't see why it wouldn't work on the ball joints. You can buy lower ball joints with the fittings but if yours are still ok, might not be bad to try and put a little fresh grease in em. If there's no play and the uppers are still good and tight, I'd try and put a fitting in and pump a little fresh grease in. If there is play in the bushings or ball joint, it might be time to change em. Especially with almost 120k miles. Lowers are serviceable so you may get off a little easier if the lower bushings or ball joint is bad. But like 4speed said in your other thread, these things are commonly know to have a lifespan... That's just a known H3 fact.

 

[alrock]

Squeaking is more likely from the ball joint than the CVs. CVs tend to click when driving and turning

 

[Best4x4]

The upper ball joints I wouldn't touch as far as adding a zerk fitting. From what I can tell the back of them is plastic and it's a one piece design (which I hate) so if you mess it up, it'll be time for a completely new upper control arm. The lowers could be drilled to accept a zerk fitting, but you're already going thru all the labor just to get to the top of the lower ball joint to drill it, so u might as well replace it.

I had a very hard time tracking down good quality lower ball joints for the H3, but Napa had them with zerk fittings for 44.00 each vs Oreilly's at 78.00 each.

 

[alrock]

AC Delco greaseable lower ball joint, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007QBVKXW/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1. These are likely the same ones you have. FWIW, the O'Reilly ones claimed compatibility but they weren't even close. The ball joint stud was a different size.

Best, adding a zerk fitting on the uppers isn't difficult but you are correct, you should be careful. The ball joint is of course metal but it's sleeve is plastic. Reloader did them a while back and there haven't been issues. The top outer surface is still aluminum.

 

[Best4x4]

The aftermarket uppers I just bought look like plastic vs the silver in the above pic, but yeah if it's aluminum it's certainly do-able. The ones I have would be super easy to drill though lol.

Yep the lowers I got from Napa look just like that link you posted.

 

[telemike]

I picked up another CV axle and two Raybestos Part # 5051439 lower ball joints to have put in Monday. I can't afford to do the upper control arms and no one has them in stock, I'd have to special order them.

 

[Best4x4]

Yeah the upper control arms I got were 167.00 with free shipping lol. I just want to do the ball joints, and CV's all at once, then get it aligned and hopefully call it a day until another 100K lol.

 

[telemike]

$267 each or both?

RockAuto has them for $99 each

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[digglesworth]

I've seen aftermarket ones from am-autoparts for $160 something for both. I've heard oem ones are $130 for one from gm parts direct or one of the places. Maybe gm parts house.

 

[digglesworth]

Just checked. $130 at gmpartsdirect.... Seems worth the extra $30/each to get oem quality...

 

[Best4x4]

It was 167 for the set not 267. I wish we had some uppers with replaceable ball joints!

 

[digglesworth]

Supposedly PCF was working on some and they were in the testing phase but no idea what kind of time frame we're looking at to actually have them.

 

[Best4x4]

Yeah I read that, but with mine having torn boots it would be just a matter of time before I had issues, and I don't want to see my own 35 A/T pass me on the freeway, so I'll give these aftermarket ones a try.

 

[telemike]

Just looked and my Driver's loewr ball joint boot has a hole in it. That's why it's creaking, no grease. New ones tomorrow!

 

[telemike]

Was able to get Driver's side ball joint and axle shaft installed for $375 labor. Will hold off on passenger side until it creaks. The estimated labor is 2.2 shop hours.

 

[alrock]

Glad you're fixed up. Seems like a reasonable price