My old 2001 dodge is pushing well over 250k miles time for front end rebuild.After seeing the video Think instead of dealing with the struggle of getting the ball joints and bushings out think I'll just order the upper and lower control arms with everything already installed.Time wise just makes better economic since.Thanks for sharing the video it answers a lot of questions I was asking myself.
Absolutely. Replacement of the whole arms are the best way to go on RWD vehicles. Go with the MOOG problem solver line from Rock Auto or OEM from dealer. Nothing else! Even NAPA has reduced the quality down to Mevotechs.
Good video. I made a holder for the coil spring using a piece of 2X2 angle iron and some 1/2 inch all thread rod, to hold the spring in place and slightly compressed. What you show will probably work but I did it like you show on a Sonoma several years ago and spend two days getting the spring seated! Never again; the holder took me 1/2 hour to make.
Great video, Great instructions! This saved me about $900.00+-! Repair/Service shop quoted me $1288.88 to do the job. Doing it myself based on your video with instructions only cost me around $340 and about 5 hours and I have a life time warranty on the parts. Thanks for sharing your mechanical and instructional talents that God has blessed you with...
Thank you for this! I"m facing front end work and the shop is recommending $3200 worth of work (upper and lower control arms with bushings and ball joints, rack and pinion, both tie rod ends). At least now I can go and look at the parts to identify what they are talking about and have them walk me through, and watch them back track on some of their recommendations. :)
Sorry to hear. Ask yourself Is your truck worth spending $3200 on it? For me it was worth it because I used rock auto for parts and did all the work myself, started project with a maximum cap which I fell well under.
Excellent video. Saved me a ton of guessing. I also, am buying Control Arm assembly vs press in, after seeing someone as skilled as you go that route. Your truck looks great/super clean. Thanks!
Thank you, it's hard to find good videos on 2500/3500 2WD front end work. I will be changing the upper arms on my '03 2500 CTD and wanted to know if dealing with the springs would be an issue if I did the lower arms. Nice vid with good narration.
Well, I got my lower control arm replaced a few weekends ago. It was a big job, but this video was very helpful and my truck rides great once more. The bolts weren't all that rusted, to where they wouldn't come off. If I hadn't replaced my shocks a few weeks before, which I had to cut the top nuts off, I'd have had to get new ones anyhow.
Your Video came in handy in your remark about 3rd party parts. On my Dakota had to redo the lower control arm Right Side. When I got it from auto parts store didn't look the same as the Left Side. Got one from different auto store, it looked like a better replacement. It works great and took the other back and got store credit. The Dakota is similar to the Ram 2500 except for the sway bar links. thanks
I got the lower control arm from AutoZone, wrong,wrong , wrong! Drove 35 miles to another of their stores, wrong wrong wrong !!? LAST Time to AutoZone!!! They suck!
David Carter - I totally agree! So much of a challenge these days to find quality parts. NAPA comes the closest but still so far away. Rock auto does the best At providing options but OEM is the way to go.
I appreciate the instructional video. It's great. One thing - Why is it that every how to video looks like it's being done on a truck with all brand new parts, including bolts, already replaced? To me, that is the scariest part of doing a big job on my old truck. Rusty bolts and the techniques to remove them is equally important, one would think.
I can only speak for myself but this video was in-fact a redo. I had all ready had the front end apart for bushing replacements. The first time I didn't take a video but the hardware was clean the same. I cleaned and painted the parts hence the reason they're new looking. Plus this truck has been babied its entire life and has never seen snow or salt. We live in the deep south and not many snow events.
Nice video, I may attempt this sometime with my older 2nd gen 95 ram 1500 5.2 v8, I'm sure at nearly 225k miles and unknown repair history from previous owners it could use new ball joints, and I heard it's a hell of a lot easier buying control arms that already have the ball joints pressed in already. I thought it was weird youtube mostly has nothing but 4x4 vids but not much help for 2 wheel drive trucks like mine. I also agree with your point about dealer parts being way too expensive, with how expensive newer vehicles are I think I'll keep this old truck and slowly fix it up as time goes on rather than have an expensive monthly payment for years equaling 60k for a new truck lol, I'm sure craigslist wouldn't give me much for this old thing anyway, there's honestly alot of broke lowballers in my area, guess I can't complain too much for a reliable vehicle that only cost 800 originally, did the oil/oil filter and got 4 used tires and did a tuneup and it starts right up every time even in freezing weather, steering is just a bit loose though
WhiteSnake9191 fortunetly for you, your year & model truck is covered very well by MOOG problem solver parts. Definitely the way to go.Thanks for commenting.
Wish you would have said all the torque specs as you tightened the bolts down…. Also, do you not need a spring compressor for this job? Just lower the control arm down with the spring on it? Thanks
Nice video, however one important point everyone seems to omit is preloading the control arm bushings before tighting them down. failure to do so often leads to premature failure of the control arm bushings.
I thought so too but the Dodge Ram 2500 HD service manual section 2 page 21 paragraph 15 says otherwise quote “(15) Lower the vehicle to the floor with vehicle weight and Tighten the front and rear control arm pivot bolts to 204 N·m (150 ft. lbs.)(LD) or 285 N·m (210 ft. lbs.)(HD 4X2 only).
I don't get all the "Great Video" comments, this is suppose to be a how to video, nobody cares if it's 10 minutes or an hour, IF you know what your doing, this video is ok, but then why would you watch it if you know what your doing. People come to these videos to see HOW to do it, you didn't explain about separating the ball joints from the knuckle, or that they should brace the spring (by using the jack under the lower control arm) or taking the whole break assembly plus bracket off, bolt locations, lots of things left out of the video, it was filmed very good however, crisp n clear, sound was good, next time, more details.
Good video. Im about to do the work myself. In the manual it states to torque down the control arm cam bolts with the weight of the vehicle on them. Did you do that?
TheBlasterMan - With all assembled but lower control arm bolts loose, and weight of vehicle on jack from LCA is same as weight on a wheel. So, Yes you can torque but tighten the pivot bolts tight as hell and it will be fine.
@@mediajunkie2195 I did the installation. When I put the control arms in they were quite tight. I had to use a little bit of force from a pry bar. I first had an acdelco set that was real tight. I figured they screwed up so I went out and bought mopar lower arms. Interestingly they seem to be identical parts. They were also tight. If I move the bushing over a bit it would probably go in smoother. Did you have to use a bit of force to put the lowers in? Any chance you have a slow motion clip of that still? haha
Yup I live in the South too. The Dodge truck I did took me hours to break the lower ball joints loose. Definitely more effort than a few sideways strikes from a small sledge. Was you're typical rustiness suspension job. For a stock Dodge suspension, I highly recommend the harbor freight ball joint separator for $20. For Dodge factory lower ball joints, the shaft at the bottom of the joint is just a hair too long. After you break the nut loose don't take the nut completely off. Cut off approximately 1/4 to 1/2 inch of the bottom of the shaft. This will shorten the shaft enough so you can get the separator on. I backed the nut off at this point just enough so that it was flush with the bottom of the shaft thus giving the separator a wide contact patch to engage on. Also you have to widen the separator a little bit to fit the larger upper portion of the tappered ball joint shaft on the Dodge's. This can be done with a typical bench grinding wheel. Hope this is helpful.
Great info, I just ordered the complete lower control arms instead if the bushings by themselves, thanks for advising doing this due to the material stretching when doing the bushings. The one thing I’m having a major issue with is finding the bump stops, I’m missing the drivers side and the passenger side is pretty worn out, I cannot off the life of me find them online anywhere. Do you have any sites that you know may have them? Thanks bro appreciate the video and info🤝 side note: got my BFH ready to rock n roll 🤘
So would you still recommend changing out the entire LCA or press in a new bushing? I seen your other video with the slack in the LCA mounting point that is allowing it to shift forward and backwards.
I probably would replace the entire LCA only if using a MOOG or OEM version. otherwise no. The MAS and Mevotech's and a couple of others listed on RA are junk. Thin with crappy welds and no build consistency or quality. Go with MOOG or OEM only! Ultimately my fix was replacing the lower control arm bushings in the original OEM Arms with OEM bushings then tack welding them permanently. Truck now has 345,000 miles on it now and suspension is as it was in 2003. Thanks
Media Junkie I purchased a 2002 Ram with 300k plus miles on it. Ended up rebuilding the very tired 4.7L engine and added a few extra internal goodies. Unfortunately the suspension needs a lot of attention so I will be tackling it soon. I figured since I'm digging into, just as well change everything since I have so much invested in the engine. Thank you for your informative video and quick response.
Media Junkie can you remember what kind of problems you were having with the bushings when you tried to replace them? Also what procedure did you take removing and stalling just the bushings.. thanks
Great video!! Just one Question (sorry I know this is old video, but hopefully you see this,...) IS this a Cummins 2500? I am a little worried that the spring on the front of a Cummins truck might be longer and more energy? Thanks!
I'm about to get into this. Thanks so much for posting this video. Where did you order the MAS LCA? I'm in Hawaii so even though I want to order better parts, Mevotechs are all that I can find that ship here. RA only had 4x4 LCAs made by MAS. I'm also replacing the rack and pinion and power steering pump. Full front end replacement.
RA still shows the MAS for my 03 2500 RWD p/n CB81243 and CB81244 at $140.79 each. What year and model is your truck? All the aftermarket units are poorly built from China. I ended up reinstalling the originals but welded in new bushings and installed MOOG problem solver ball joint.
We'll that explains it. I got an 03 1500. I was debating replacing the whole arm because the price difference between getting moog bushings and ball joints vs a new LCA was negligible. Also, it seems like getting that ball joint out would be a bitch. I wonder if I could install 2500 LCAs on my truck? Thanks for the reply.
I doubt the 2500 LCA's would be a direct fit. for the 1500's (Bolt size, Length, Geometry etc.) If your committed to quality and keeping the truck then find best price on OEM LCA's. No expert here but I personally wouldn't try the 2500's on the 1500's. Good luck to you!
Media Junkie You're probably right. I think I'll just replace the bushings and ball joints then. At least then I'll know the LCA will last. Thanks again!
Ok, loaded equals the tires on ground for final torquing. Preloaded equals tires off the ground with the weight of vehicle resting on jack for final torquing. Samething. Right? Anyway I just think it should be emphasized.
The control arm is only bolted on, no rivets. The carrier for the lower ball joint does have rivets but it does not matter if u replace the entire control arm or even just press in a new ball joint.
Good question but not easy to answer. Heres why. Ball Joints are higher wear items than both the upper and lower control arm bushings. However. More cost effective to change complete arms as opposed to just the ball joints. I would change both at the same time. Don't make my mistake. Hope this helps.
I will be replacing the uppers and lowers on my 92 GMC truck next month. They look just like the ones you used. Must have been from the same CHINESE factory! Did you go get a wheel alignment after this?
Got it. The main issue I'm having is one of the bolts that holds in the control arm is frozen. The bolt in not budging at all. The other one came out smooth with tap of a hammer. Any suggestions?
yes sir. 06' 1500. It is a bolt and nut. But it's budging after about 2 hours of trying to hammer it out and with heat application. The cutting method may be the solution unfortunately.
Media Junkie oh okay but one last question for the coil springs do I need a special tool to compress the spring or no and the coil springs do is it only carry just one insulator on each side ?
@@ismaelmorales7672 - No spring compressor needed. If you'll watch my video you'll notice how I use the floor jack in such a way that will allow compression and and relaxing of spring easily. Just watch video and you'll see how its done without spring compressor.
Media Junkie okay thanks I just seeing it right now, and I just ordered the lower control arm for both sides for my 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 and so this Sunday I’ll start to work on it
It's kind of depressing when you can't get well-made American parts for your truck, 90% of the selection if not more is like you say, Asian market based, where quality comes second, and than you go back to what it is, a truck with 300k mileage and not being worth it to to put that USA made quality / spend a thousand dollars because the truck isn't worth that much. I bought a rack n pinion off a seller from Amazon because their name was detroit axle or something like that, anyway I get the crap it's a cheap ass repo, and the rotors I ordered from them were made in China, crap!
Steve Armendariz sr - I know and acknowledged in vocal part of video. So sorry. Winter time videos in garages are tough for viewers. At least right side had good lighting right?
