Ball joint failed

[gary_lucas]

I was poking around on the driver side finishing attaching the power steering line supports when i saw this:

https://goo.gl/photos/vs1BbabamzQgm3gWA

Thank god I noticed...

I pressed in a new moog ball joint a couple months back... I'm pretty sure it looked fine a week ago.

The ball joint is destroyed, the boot is literally shredded and shoved halfway through the control arm.

The control arm splines are deformed.

I'm going to blame myself, I pushed it in, I have never done it before and likely screwed it up.

Just wondering if anyone has insight for me? I'm also now worried because I did the other 3 ball joints... They still seem solid, I went down and checked each of them. Also, by the time I got to them I was a little more competent at being able to line them up properly. Has anyone else seen this?

Thanks!

I've purchased a new MOOG control arm and will install it tomorrow.

[gary_lucas]

Haven't installed the new arm yet...

I managed to tear something or stress a tendon or something of that nature. Waiting til that has stopped hurting for a day or two.

The other side still looks good.

https://goo.gl/photos/PqJotuLyvQvnTFLP7

Once I do the new control arm I'll take it for an alignment and then give it a good road test and re-inspect.

[gary_lucas]

New control arm installed.

The hardest bit was getting the bolts loose. I soaked them in honey goo + liquid wrench every night for a few days... And then after jacking up the control arm I got my small impact on the bolt and just zipped it back and forth for a few minutes (5 seconds tighten then 5 seconds loosen... Wait... Repeat).

Both bolts were loose in about 5 minutes. Last time I fought with these it took an hour and didn't get much done.

Those newer little electric impacts are awesome.

[rapidoxidationman]

Does the steering feel any tighter?

[gary_lucas]

Does the steering feel any tighter?

The truck is down to almost new again. The steering has maybe 1/2 an inch of play in it. probably less, it's not as tight as my B250, but it's not that far off.

I'm going to install the cognito kit this weekend if my arm co-operates.

My next project is fixing the body rust. I took the wheel well / mud flap off.

I'm pretty disgusted by the rust protection on these trucks. The fender flares and wheel well are poorly isolated. The whole back of the wheel well was loaded with rust and crap. You can't see it til you take the fender flare off.

If the fender flare wasn't there I don't think there'd be rust... IE I think the fender flare catches the water and crap and keeps it there.

[More Power]

In looking through my 2001 GM service manuals I noticed that it does not include ball joint replacement info for the upper control arms, though it does contain R&R info for the control arms and ball joint replacement info for the lower ball joints.

Does this mean the ball joints used on the upper control arms are not replaceable?