Alignment after Upper & Lower Ball Joints replacement?

Hi, i just replaced my upper and lower ball joints (both sides) this weekend. I don’t know the last time it was align from previous owner. The ball joint that was starting to go bad was upper- passenger side. After the replacement I immediately notice a good change. There’s no longer a pressure on steering to tend to go to the right. My question is, do i need an alignment after this job?

 

I would, yeah... especially if you noticed some differences in driving it.

Usually, if you’re careful, and you replaced the exact same balljoints (same brand), you could get away wih not getting one.

 

Everyone has an opinion. Personally, I say YES - go get it aligned

 

Yes. Things can shift, parts can be different, plus it’s good practice to get an alignment done about once a year. Especially if you have rough roads and encounter potholes often

 

Are their washers between the four bolts of the lower ball joint and the spindle or is that just machining?

 

Okay, thanks guys for the honest answers. I’ll get it align. And the parts are all OEM. This job was made it easy because i have all kinds of tools accessible for me cause i did it at a hobby shop for $4 an hour (flat stall). Thanks guys!

 

That’s just machining work, i see what you mean though i had a good stare at it when i was tightening them up

 

Nice work OP. Not trying to derail your thread but you said you did this at a hobby shop, what kind of place is that? Ive heard of spaces like that for woodworking or crafting but never for automotive stuff, sounds pretty awesome if thats what it is.

 

Yeah i know, it’s $4 for flat, $8 for lift. It’s at Camp Pendleton available for service members only. It’s a recreation thing for us run by base.

 

I agree with the alignment, especially since you mentioned no records of it being aligned by anyone else. Even though in most cases just replacing the ball joints has minimal effect on geometry, it can help with camber adjustments that are unnoticed and any left over steering play brought on by the worn ball joint.

good work OP, and yeah it does look like washers but I think those are just flat bottoms on the bolts right?

 

That’s what the oem lowers look like. They have these sleeve things machined into them to help with alignment of the spindle and lbj. Also looks like it reduces shearing stresses on a the bolts. Might’ve been a design change after all the failures happened

 

I was thinking of the bottom side where the bolt goes in. Yeah I remember the sleeves when I changed mine on the upper side