I doubt it's the ball joints. If the stabilizer and sway bar links are loose then start with replacing those. Ball joints aren't all that common to fail even though the boots look terrible. All of them on my white one are basically gone and they are still rock solid and that truck gets abused by most users standards here.

 

Been super busy over the past two weeks. Job always ramps up this time of year. After a particularly sedentary day I decided to carve out some time for the disco this afternoon. Did a quick job or replacing the old steering stabilizer with an old man emu one. Also sprayed the sway bar connects with PB blaster so hopefully they'll be easy to take out when the time comes (have the new ones, but no time). Last time I took it out I basically stuck my head out the window like a dog when the noise was happening. I thought then it sounded more like it may be coming from the back. So I crawled under the back and started pushing and pulling things. Got to the exhaust and moved easily. And low and behold, when I yanked it back and forth it was making a very similar knocking sound. I guess my question(s) here are, does it make sense that the exhaust would cause the noise? Is it normally have this much travel? If not, is this fixable without welding?

 

hangers are probably shot. Annoying but cheap and fixable without welding, assuming it's the bushings (rubber things that hold exhaust to hanger) and not one of the actual hanger attachments. Should be simple to tell. The exhaust should have some movement but it shouldn't be able to swing around and smack the frame.