Ball Joints

[Scrubb84]

Looking for some long term reviews to help decide what ball joints I should go with. What brand did you buy and would you buy them again, why/why not? Install issues, premature wear? That sort of thing.
From what i can tell so far, Metalcloak are the best but I don’t have the funds for those.

Thanks

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[WK2JT]

So I used the American Iron “delete” BJs. Metalcloak and Dynatrac also offer rebuildable BJ’s. I went this route to avoid having to press new cups in and out each time. However, that’s only a concern if you’re keeping your jeep long term. From what I’ve read, rebuildable or not, expect about 20-40k miles if you have larger tires and/or offroad, especially with the OEM BJ’s with the plastic inside them. These are definitely a YMMV part based on your circumstances.

 

[Volt0]

So I used the American Iron “delete” BJs. Metalcloak and Dynatrac also offer rebuildable BJ’s. I went this route to avoid having to press new cups in and out each time. However, that’s only a concern if you’re keeping your jeep long term. From what I’ve read, rebuildable or not, expect about 20-40k miles if you have larger tires and/or offroad, especially with the OEM BJ’s with the plastic inside them. These are definitely a YMMV part based on your circumstances.

What does the rebuild process look like? All of the same steps, with the exception of pressing new ones in?

 

[WK2JT]

What does the rebuild process look like? All of the same steps, with the exception of pressing new ones in?

Bingo, it’s still work, but at least you’re not pressing cups and potentially enlarging the holes on the C’s where you need knurled BJ’s. Full disclosure, I haven’t needed to rebuild them yet, but in theory, it’s nice not needing to press.

 

[WK2JT]

I have to soak in WD40 and pound the hell out of one of my OEM BJ’s because it was rusted/seized into the C. I could not press it out and it actually bent the press a bit… I should have known better than to crank on it that much though. I was hoping it was going to break loose and pop out. Had to break out the Thor hammer and beat the piss out of it.

 

[Scrubb84]

So I used the American Iron “delete” BJs. Metalcloak and Dynatrac also offer rebuildable BJ’s. I went this route to avoid having to press new cups in and out each time. However, that’s only a concern if you’re keeping your jeep long term. From what I’ve read, rebuildable or not, expect about 20-40k miles if you have larger tires and/or offroad, especially with the OEM BJ’s with the plastic inside them. These are definitely a YMMV part based on your circumstances.

Are they noisy? I’ve read a few complaints about that.

 

[WK2JT]

Mine haven’t been at all. Now of course I’m rubbing a lift and noisy tires. American iron was reported to change bearings or something to address the initial break-in noise. I bought mine after that and did not experience any noise that I’m aware of.

 

[Camaroboi13]

I went with the Teraflex ball joints. They’re sitting under the Christmas tree right now, so I can’t speak for their quality or longevity just yet. I get well over 50k out of my stock joints on 37s and some tough trails. I would expect these to do better than that, and if they don’t I’ll be going back to stock ball joints.

 

[bd100]

I have to soak in WD40 and pound the hell out of one of my OEM BJ’s because it was rusted/seized into the C. I could not press it out and it actually bent the press a bit… I should have known better than to crank on it that much though. I was hoping it was going to break loose and pop out. Had to break out the Thor hammer and beat the piss out of it.

While putting tension on the ball joint using the puller, try knocking the side of the metal which is wrapped around the ball joint. This hopefully vibrates it loose.

Yup, the 4 lb hammer!

 

[WK2JT]

While putting tension on the ball joint using the puller, try knocking the side of the metal which is wrapped around the ball joint. This hopefully vibrates it loose.

Yup, the 4 lb hammer!

Whoops… that was supposed to be I had to, not have to. Got it out with a whole lot of banging on everything. You could see the rust on it. It was the only one and of course the last one of the four I was removing.

 

[Mtpisgah]

I have had Dynatracs installed on my JT with 3” lift and 37s for about 17k miles. All is good so far. I was getting DW and it went away after the install. I installed them on my wife’s JLR for good measure, she would not like DW.

 

[Lukasz]

I just installed Dynatracs a few weeks ago. The install wasn’t too bad, with the exception of pressing them in. Initially I couldn’t tell if they’re going in at the correct angle. It got easier with each ball joint. That said, this isn’t a process that I would want to go through multiple times in the future. The risk of enlarging the wholes is real. Rebuildable ball joints are a must IMO.

I went with Dynatracs, because that seemed to be a safe bet. Metalcloak seems like a solid option, but I haven’t heard much about them.

I was initially excited about the American Iron ball joint delete, but a local shop owner told me that they’ve seen mixed results with them - some people love them, others report a bad ride quality after the instal.

Hope this helps!

 

[MaximusTX]

I went with Americon Iron Deletes. I haven't installed them yet. My local shop swears by them and puts them on all their builds. Another shop I talked to said the American Irons do awesome off-road but they have had some issues with them squeaking so customers bring the vehicles back so they will no longer install them and will only do the dynatrac ones.

 

[Old Dogger]

Dynatrac, are pretty much the gold standard.

 

[Stan H]

What if I told you I got 112K on factory ball joints ? I do pavement ,gravel, lot of pothole roads and been running 35's and 2.5" lift for 32K .

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