I figured out what is making a banging noise that I can feel in the floor in my 1999 Ranger's front end when the suspension goes through exaggerated movements. I suspected the upper ball joint was the problem, but the 12-6 test passed, the most movement is at the 9-3 test, which would point to tie rods.
I pulled off the wheel this morning to see what is going on. I couldn't get anything to move without the leverage of the wheel, so I put a lug nut back on a stud, all the way to the hub and used the truck's tire iron as a lever. The upper ball joint clunks back and forth, and the tie rod is fine.
The upper ball joint is a single piece with the upper control arm. Should I replace both sides as a pair? The passenger side hasn't developed play. The boot is torn, but there is a zerk fitting on both that I grease intermittently, along with the two lower ball joints.
If the other side is OK there's no real need to do it, but if it's the same age it will probably start showing signs of wear in the near future. So while you have the Ranger up on stands you might just want to go ahead and take care of both sides so you don't have to deal with it again any time soon. Otherwise the ball joint on the other side might start giving you problems at an inconvenient time.
That's basically what I did with my '71 Ambassador. Instead of just replacing a loose ball joint I rebuilt the entire front suspension (all joints and bushings).
I may do that. The parts are $85 a piece.
The driver's side gets more abuse than the passenger side, There's a 1-2" drop from the paved surface to my gravel driveway that the driver's side usually encounters. The passenger side is more even with the street. Most of the potholes are also on the driver's side. Haha.
I do U-turns in the yard, coming back onto the driveway, the suspension moves over a broad hump around 6-8" high, and when it settles, it thuds.
I never cared for that Ford design with the ball joint integrated into the control arm. An OEM Saab ball joint for my daily driver is only $20.
It's a love/hate thing for me. If it came non-greaseable, which I'm sure it did from New Jersey, I would've hated it. Having zerk fittings, it wouldn't bother me. Theoretically, they don't wear out if you keep fresh grease in them. These do, but I don't know how old they are, previous owners seemed to take care of the truck for the 50k miles they had it. I'm assuming it was the owner before them that replaced the things, or even before them, 201k miles is a lot of unknowns. Haha.
Both ended up needing replaced. Oddly the wheels both showed play at the 9-3 position, not 12-6, and no longer have play with the new ball joints. The passenger side rusted into the knuckle and I bent a 24" pry bar trying to get it out! I couldn't pry it out so I got creative. I put the truck's spare tire bottle jack on the lower control arm, close to the hinge, it's a closed piece of metal around there, so I knew I wouldn't bend anything. I extended the jack until the upper control arm seated in the jack, then slowly extended the it until the stud popped out. It startled me, cuz it made a loud pop, haha.
There's nothing quite as much "fun" as working on rusty front end parts! 😮
That is why they make large hammers and propane torches. A pickle fork and air hammer could have increased the fun factor exponentially.
I would've used my trusty torch, but I left it at my friend's a few weeks ago and forgot about it until I needed it. Haha. I whacked it with a framing hammer, that just jumped the suspension up and down.
I thought of the old mechanic's trick for freeing rusted rotors from a hub by threading a bolt and a couple nuts and washers through the caliper bracket. You tighten the bolt on the rotor side until the rust breaks. I used the same concept, only with hydraulic power, not compressed metal. Haha.