I made it from NY to Alabama holding my breath the entire time waiting for the front left ball joint to fail and all hell to break loose on I-81. Thankfully that didn't happen but I do need to drive back to NY soon and I don't know if I can hold my breath like that again.

 

I have a 94 Loyale. No junkyards around here have one. The local parts store only have the ball joint itself. I'd like to replace the whole knuckle. Do any of you knuckleheads have one?

 

In the holiday spirit if you send me an external harddrive along with the knuckle, I'll fill it up and mail it back to you with over 200 gigs of music. Everyting from Armstrong to Zappa........

 

Get back to me in this thread or shoot me an email at MJYund@gmail.com

 

Cheers.........

given the conditions and circumstances it seems like it would be wise to just replace the ball joint?

 

do you need to specify which side?

 

there's a few in alabama:

Arley 1-800-231-2768

Calera 1-800-884-0105

$35 griffin GA 1-866-233-3881

Given the circumstance and consequence of failure if I can not get a knuckle I'll replace just the ball joint before leaving. It would make me much happier if I could replace the entire knuckle, get an alignment, and drive 20 hours home. But given the choice between potentially have a major accident on the interstate or just replacing just the ball joint, I'll go ahead and replace the ball joint.

what's wrong with the knuckle?

 

borrow, rent, or buy a pickle fork. good chance the ball joint won't come out without a wrestling match without one. they make a 30 second step out of a potential 2 hour debacle.

 

i'll post a link to this in the subaruxt.com forum, there's some alabama guys and the one has some parts i think.

Yeah the pickle fork is a good call, I'll be going out to buy one right this afternoon.

 

As far as the knuckle goes, I suppose it's not imperative that I replace it. It just seems pretty worn and while I'm working there I'd like to replace it...As long as I get the ball joint replaced should be safe sailing home....

You don't need a knuckle - they aren't a wear item. Just replace the bearings and seals.

 

GD

Ya Sir....Sounds good to me......I guess I was being a bit overly paranoid. I took it in to get aligned and the tech told me before I got an alignment I needed to replace the ball joint and that I might as well do the whole knuckle while I was at it. Seems like just the ball joint is all I really need to do for now. Thanks guys....

yeah those tech guys sometimes lump all vehicles in one big box, but there's really no reason to replace a good knuckle on this vehicle.

Moog a decent choice for a replacement? Partsgeek has them at a decent price...

 

I want to use something that will last. GD recommended a MWE axle for me a while ago and that was a huge improvement of the BS I've gotten before.

Moog is always a good choice for chassis parts.

Moog is always a good choice for chassis parts.

+1. Moog has been around for ages.

 

I haven't heard of any names to stay away from.

 

Have you noticed any issues with your front suspension, or was this all due to the recommendation of the technician? AFAIK, ball joint failures, although potentially catastrophic, are rare. The ball joints sloppiness usually annoy/scares people into replacing them far before they become structurally unsafe.