I had the upper and lower ball joints replaced on my truck recently. Driving home from the shop I noticed that the steering would stay where ever I put it and not return. It was very difficult to get it home. This place is family run and been in business 45 years and doing my vehicles for 30 years.

I thought maybe the new parts were not broken in or that they did not do an alignment. I took it to a Goodyear place and they told me it was way out on the toe in and that the camber on the right was not adjustable. On my way home the truck still did not drive correctly.

I went to Midas for tail pipe replacement because another shop had done such a terrible job and routed the pipes too close to the spare and shocks. While at Midas I asked them to just check the steering. They concluded that the MOOG ball joints on the right side did not move correctly (frozen) and installed Autolite. They told me MOOG had a recall on their ball joints for just this problem. On the way home the truck still did not drive correctly although it was much improved.

I talked to the first place about the MOOG joints and he said he never heard of something like that.

I was also told from Midas that the rear was out by 1.6. I got home and ran a carfax but it showed no wrecks. I thought the frame might have gotten tweaked from off-roading so I called a frame specialist. He adamantly stated that the MOOG ball joints were the problem (still on the left side) and it would not go away until they were replaced with Ford ball joints. He said MOOG makes great parts for everything except ball joints. The frame place has been in business for 50 years. I have made an appointment for them to check the rear.

Have any of you heard of this problem?

 

This is one of those subjects where you ask 5 people and get 5 different answers.
Some Ford ball joints don't last as long as we would like due to the material used in their construction. Moog has come out with some good replacements , but they need to be installed properly or problems like you have show up. There are good and bad in both and a lot depends on the tech installing them. There are special procedures that should be followed and if the person replacing the joints with Moog joints isn't aware of those procedures you have problems. The advantage of using Moog joints is they can be lubricated whereas Ford joints sometimes require a plug to be removed if present. One can only wonder where these products are manufactured and the quality of the material. Everybody is cutting costs and quality suffers, and so does the owner ! Wish I could be of more help, but Most of the time Ford dealers have the parts to do a good alignment where many outside shops don't carry the parts that Ford trucks require.