All suspension bits, everything was replaced about 10k miles ago. I recently had a weird popping noise that I thought was a lower ball joint, but after diagnoses it’s my upper ball joint. The joint is good, but for some reason it slides up and down in the control arm, yet the ring Below it is perfectly around it.

I’m afraid it’s just going to get more and more loose.

See pics below. When I jack it up on the lower control arm it pushes it up and then letting it down it seats below.

open to any suggestions. I’m 1/2 tempted to just tack it. Not sure if a new upper joint would fix it?

Lowered it seats back down.

Ring in position

Jacked up see the gap

 

Wow, that's crazy. If the control arm OEM, the ball joint? Guessing at least one is not. I would replace that ball joint asap. I found out the hard way that the ball joints studs snap rather easily when tightening the nut, never go past spec. I did not even think I was going all that hard on it. So I had to replace one my my uppers with an AC Delco ball joint (all that was available fast). It fit fine and has been holding up with no issue. Put it in myself.

 

I would look very carefully at that joint as it is supposed to be locked in by the circlip. As there is play in it I would think that the ball joint fitted may be the wrong one.

 

Is the circlip seated properly ? Is it possible that is a lower BJ and not an upper ?

 

^ The upper and lower ball joints are noting alike. Its an upper for sure, just looks made out of spec OR the control arm is way out of spec.

 

It’s the upper. I pulled it out and fortunately had my old upper control arm still laying around. Pulled the ball joint on both and with the micrometer the joint OD and ID on the control arm are the same. It must be just a hair loose or a hair too narrow. Not something that was measured.

On the new one the sleeves looked straight and it actually pressed out quite difficult. Talked to an old mechanic mentor and said this use to be an issue back in the day and that tacking was common practice. Just have to be quick and pour water on it. If grease comes out you messed up. So with nothing to loose as I’m not sure if it’s the control arm or ball joint and no warranty I did 3 quick taps. No grease came out. No more clunking. If the ball joint goes bad I’ll just get a new control arm I figure.

(I’m not a welder and it’s a $100 wire fed machine so no dimes, but it turned out ok)

Learned something new as I’d never come across this before as it’s usually the joint that fails.

 

That should take care of it. The ball joints typically last a long time and a complete OEM upper arm is only $75 USD, so when the time comes (if ever) you won't have to invest much anyway.

 

exactly my thoughts. I really didn’t want to cut these out again.

 

Make a note here for posterity. So at one point as I mentioned above I snapped my original factory ball joint in my original factory upper arm. Replaced with AC Delco, no issue. Fast forward to this week were doing other work I found the source of my clunk. Assumed sway bar links - nope, my upper ball joint was shot. This was a new arm w/joint replaced 40k miles ago as part of a total rebuild. OEM parts. A bit annoyed it failed so soon! Then I ran into a similar situation here. In may case, the replacement ball joint was too small and resulted in this issue. It flopped around putt a lot of stress on the circlip. I got a second ball joint, it fit better but still not satisfactory. I used some metal cable ties to create shims and then pressed the joint in. Made a HUGE difference in fitment but I still plant to replace it again so its done properly. I have a TRW and API ball joint coming from Rock Auto later this week. I also ordered a whole new OEM arm w/joint from the UK along with two more backup upper ball joints. So between all this, I will be back to 100% safe to drive. But I will be measuring all the ball joints. Something is not right with the OEM or aftermarket tolerances. Off the cuff, my OEM ball joint was 42.5mm, replacements were 42 and 42.25mm. I will get more exacting measurements soon.