A bit of Jeepin´ with chilly spring sun. But then...

lassak · **Posted:** Sun Mar 26, 2017 6:41 pm

Finally a sunny sunday came along, time for my Libby for a short ride in hills around my village after darn cold winter. I picked up my girl and she asked me for a short detour to buy some food for the evening. No problem, we hit the road and headed to a nearby town. We returned home, unloaded stuff and headed for local hills. We Inclined a steep hill and pulled over near a forest, to take some pictures and take a walk together in it to breathe fresh forest mountain air.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxaT6L4lV8yEWFYxU3BMYmJ5UzA

It is getting cold, time to get back to the car and return home. Descended the hill carefully, no crazy offroading, just a causual homecoming through muddy terrain. Closing home, 200m to go, only 100m to reach paved road. All of a sudden *RUBMLE*RUMBLE*RUMBLE*. "What the hell was that?" Pulling over in a matter of second, coming out to inspect the noise only to sight.... OH YOU F***** ****** :furious:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxaT6L4lV8yEdjhJTjlLWnpHWFE

Goddamn ball joint! All right, I´m sending my darling home, telling her i will not be coming back until i manage to fix it and bring Libby home. I pull up my sleeves and get my jack out.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxaT6L4lV8yEU2NlVFc2ekZaRzQ

Seems like the metal ball is intact, luckily.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxaT6L4lV8yETFoxdWM4OUNGNDA

This means i can slide the ball back in the seat, fix it and drive it at least home. A chain and a strap should be enough to hold it together and drive Libby back home on its own.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxaT6L4lV8yEb2w2clRwMlJUVGM

I finally arrived home. Suddenly a massive chill went down my spine as I realized what could have happened if the ball-joint had broken while descending that darn hill, or even when rolling down the highway at high speed... :grim:

But hey, I am alive and so is my dear girl.

Now to the point - is there any possibility to fix/change that upper ball joint? Or do I have to change the whole upper control arm?

flash7210 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 26, 2017 6:54 pm

Short answer, No.
You have to replace the whole upper arm.

Long answer, yes.
JeepinbyAl.com sells custom made upper arms that will allow individual replacement of the upper ball joint.
In either case, you will have to replace the upper arms. It's just a matter of how much you want to spend.

I'd like to see your pictures but they won't display for some reason.

lassak · **Posted:** Sun Mar 26, 2017 6:56 pm

I changed the misleading images for urls to my google drive, you can take a look there :roll:

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Mon Mar 27, 2017 12:09 pm

look at it like this, if you hadn't detoured to go take a walk, it could have happened on the interstate or some other circumstance where at the minimum could have costs ya 1000-1500+ in repairs or at worst had to deal with health insurance folks

so lesson learned, right? always take the detour and have a walk

i feel like i should say sorry for your luck, but i think it's the opposite, your luck was good in this case
the stock arms arent terribly expensive, but i'd at least look into the JBA arms if you plan to keep the vehicle indefinitely. they're a worthwhile investment

wheeee32 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 30, 2017 3:44 pm

Wow. Well that's one way to get home. hahaha So glad the worst thing didn't happen on the drive home. It is worth it in the long run to get the better a-arms from JBA. Lifted or not they allow for singular replacement of the ball joint.

A bit of Jeepin´ with chilly spring sun. But then...

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