Wandering Sagebrush asked that I post about this repair. Here goes -
A Wrenching Weekend
It was Mother's Day Weekend and, unfortunately, we are now both orphans. I can't BBQ a leg of lamb for my mother in law like I did so many years with wonderful memories. So it was a weekend of chores. On Saturday morning - as a retirement present - we bought and installed extendable towing mirrors onto our friend Cathy's 2016 Nissan Frontier. She bought a small travel trailer and these were needed. I was quite pleased with the quality and wish that mirrors like this were available for our Ford Ranger. They are not.
Cathy project was completed and she was on her way by noon so Saturday afternoon we did our 50 hour service on our Massey Ferguson tractor - fluid and filter change in the engine, front axle, and transmission, rear axle, and hydraulic system.
Sunday we rebuilt the front suspension on our 2003 Ford Ranger 4x4. Symptoms that pointed to the need were telltale wear patterns on the front tires, an occasional loud bang in the front end while crawling in 4x4, and a clicking sound on the left side when crawling in 4x4. Inspection showed wear in the left lower ball joint and both tie rod ends rubber boots were torn. The truck has 175,000 miles on it. The truck gets used. We will continue to use it, so it was worth it to us to do a rebuild. Around 3 months ago, in response to growing front bearing noise, we replaced the bearing hub assemblies on both sides. The clicking sound on the left side I attributed to the CV joint in that side's axle shaft, so we were replacing the axle shafts on both sides of the front. The ball joints on the upper control arms are not replaceable - as in pressing in new ones. The entire control arm with new bushings and ball joint is installed. New lower control arms with ball joint and bushings are available, so we went that route also.
We removed and replaced -
I did not document each step as this was pretty basic wrenching. This job would have been very difficult without a pneumatic 1/2" drive impact wrench.
Here's the right front prior to disassembly - but we already removed the shocks.
And, the left front.
The brake caliber and rotor are removed and placed on a bucket to not tweak the brake line. The spindle assembly is placed on another bucket after releasing the clips for the ABS sensor cable.
This truck has torsion bar suspension. Prior to disassembly I measured ride height in two places and also counted the number of turns to remove the adjustment bolt on each side. The torsion bar is still under tension after the adjustment bolts are removed. I used a two jaw puller to add tension to remove the adjustment key and then back off and release all tension to remove the torsion bars and end keys.
I also marked the position of all parts prior to disassembly.
I figured the torsion bars could be rusted and seized on both ends - the lower control arm and end key. I was lucky they came apart easily without brute force and the three pounder. I clean off - pressure wash - the underside of the truck very often - desert trips and especially after driving in chain controls and road deicing. I believe this practice really paid off with the relative ease of disassembly on this project.
Here's the torsion bar hex end removed from the lower control arm.
The complete sway bar removed.
Upper control arm removed. The brake and fuel lines were a bit of a hassle on the left side for removing the camber bolts.
I did not photograph the lower control arms removed because we immediately installed the new ones. The axle shafts just pull out with care not to damage the oil seal on the axle housing. I measured the length of each tie rod prior to disassembly and adjusted the new ones to that length.
Here's new axle shaft, inner tie rod, tie rod boot, and lower control arm on the left side.
Inner tie rods do not come with new boots. From what I found, I believe it's essential to replace them. Replacing them was the hardest part of the job. It is close quarters back in there and a vent line is connected to each one so pressure is equalized on both sides of the steering assembly.
Here is the right side reassembled except for the sway bar and torsion bars.
And here is the sway bar with new bushings and end links installed.
My 2003 shop manual stresses replacing the torsion bar adjustment bolts as they are treated with dry thread lock. I imagine you never want these to loosen up and drop out. I could only get these through Ford. The shocks are Bilstein, the same that came OE on the Level II Ranger 4x4 model. All other parts were Napa premium grade suspension parts. The Napa store is a mile away in our small town and I've always had good luck with their products.
I torqued all bolts to specs found in my shop manual. The control arm bushings bolts were torqued after the truck was back to normal ride height with the tires on and the truck off the jack stands.
I found two additional issues during disassembly. The inner tie rod on the right side was badly worn and the sway bar bushings on the end links were hard. I expect that the occasional bang was from the sway bar when under unequal tension.
Total cost of parts was around $1100. Well worth it. The alignment shop is also a mile away. They inspected our work, all was good, and aligned it. We are good to go with a brand new front suspension.
We'd both much rather travel then work on the truck but we also want this stuff done right, be well aware how everything works, and have no surprises.
Here's to Mother's Day from a couple of senior citizen orphans.
A Wrenching Weekend
It was Mother's Day Weekend and, unfortunately, we are now both orphans. I can't BBQ a leg of lamb for my mother in law like I did so many years with wonderful memories. So it was a weekend of chores. On Saturday morning - as a retirement present - we bought and installed extendable towing mirrors onto our friend Cathy's 2016 Nissan Frontier. She bought a small travel trailer and these were needed. I was quite pleased with the quality and wish that mirrors like this were available for our Ford Ranger. They are not.
Cathy project was completed and she was on her way by noon so Saturday afternoon we did our 50 hour service on our Massey Ferguson tractor - fluid and filter change in the engine, front axle, and transmission, rear axle, and hydraulic system.
Sunday we rebuilt the front suspension on our 2003 Ford Ranger 4x4. Symptoms that pointed to the need were telltale wear patterns on the front tires, an occasional loud bang in the front end while crawling in 4x4, and a clicking sound on the left side when crawling in 4x4. Inspection showed wear in the left lower ball joint and both tie rod ends rubber boots were torn. The truck has 175,000 miles on it. The truck gets used. We will continue to use it, so it was worth it to us to do a rebuild. Around 3 months ago, in response to growing front bearing noise, we replaced the bearing hub assemblies on both sides. The clicking sound on the left side I attributed to the CV joint in that side's axle shaft, so we were replacing the axle shafts on both sides of the front. The ball joints on the upper control arms are not replaceable - as in pressing in new ones. The entire control arm with new bushings and ball joint is installed. New lower control arms with ball joint and bushings are available, so we went that route also.
We removed and replaced -
- Lower Control Arms - ball joints and bushings
- Upper Control Arms - ball joints and bushings
- Tie Rods - both inner and outer
- Tie Rod Boots
- Sway Bar Bushings
- Sway Bar End Links with bushings
- Both axle half shafts
- Front and Rear Shocks - Julie wanted this since we were there.
I did not document each step as this was pretty basic wrenching. This job would have been very difficult without a pneumatic 1/2" drive impact wrench.
Here's the right front prior to disassembly - but we already removed the shocks.
And, the left front.
The brake caliber and rotor are removed and placed on a bucket to not tweak the brake line. The spindle assembly is placed on another bucket after releasing the clips for the ABS sensor cable.
This truck has torsion bar suspension. Prior to disassembly I measured ride height in two places and also counted the number of turns to remove the adjustment bolt on each side. The torsion bar is still under tension after the adjustment bolts are removed. I used a two jaw puller to add tension to remove the adjustment key and then back off and release all tension to remove the torsion bars and end keys.
I also marked the position of all parts prior to disassembly.
I figured the torsion bars could be rusted and seized on both ends - the lower control arm and end key. I was lucky they came apart easily without brute force and the three pounder. I clean off - pressure wash - the underside of the truck very often - desert trips and especially after driving in chain controls and road deicing. I believe this practice really paid off with the relative ease of disassembly on this project.
Here's the torsion bar hex end removed from the lower control arm.
The complete sway bar removed.
Upper control arm removed. The brake and fuel lines were a bit of a hassle on the left side for removing the camber bolts.
I did not photograph the lower control arms removed because we immediately installed the new ones. The axle shafts just pull out with care not to damage the oil seal on the axle housing. I measured the length of each tie rod prior to disassembly and adjusted the new ones to that length.
Here's new axle shaft, inner tie rod, tie rod boot, and lower control arm on the left side.
Inner tie rods do not come with new boots. From what I found, I believe it's essential to replace them. Replacing them was the hardest part of the job. It is close quarters back in there and a vent line is connected to each one so pressure is equalized on both sides of the steering assembly.
Here is the right side reassembled except for the sway bar and torsion bars.
And here is the sway bar with new bushings and end links installed.
My 2003 shop manual stresses replacing the torsion bar adjustment bolts as they are treated with dry thread lock. I imagine you never want these to loosen up and drop out. I could only get these through Ford. The shocks are Bilstein, the same that came OE on the Level II Ranger 4x4 model. All other parts were Napa premium grade suspension parts. The Napa store is a mile away in our small town and I've always had good luck with their products.
I torqued all bolts to specs found in my shop manual. The control arm bushings bolts were torqued after the truck was back to normal ride height with the tires on and the truck off the jack stands.
I found two additional issues during disassembly. The inner tie rod on the right side was badly worn and the sway bar bushings on the end links were hard. I expect that the occasional bang was from the sway bar when under unequal tension.
Total cost of parts was around $1100. Well worth it. The alignment shop is also a mile away. They inspected our work, all was good, and aligned it. We are good to go with a brand new front suspension.
We'd both much rather travel then work on the truck but we also want this stuff done right, be well aware how everything works, and have no surprises.
Here's to Mother's Day from a couple of senior citizen orphans.
