Question about control arms.

[04_Sport_LS]

Because then anybody could do it. Even the ones that are a danger to themselves.

I don't care what the receipts you have say... because they seem bogus... like the mechanic padded his time so he could make more $$$ on an easy repair.

He probably did replace all the control arms... with cheap aftermarket ones. The easy way to tell that... is because the OEM ones will have a "Ford, Motorcraft, or Jaguar" badge cast into them...
and will typically have the part number on the control arms too.

You are way overthinking things and making this harder than it has to be. Reminds me of someone else on here.

I just called my local dealer and gave them your VIN #. So I did YOUR "leg work" for YOU.

They said the knuckle/ball joint is 14mm, but is obsolete. They also said that there WAS a conversion "kit" that converted everything over to the 16mm ball joint... but that is now obsolete too. THAT might be why FPG is showing 16mm lower contol arms... but the ball joint isn't part of the contol arm on an LS.

The conversion kit would have included a new knuckle, lower control arm, rotor, and wheel hub (not spindle)... but as I said... it is obsolete too.

So... you have 2 choices. Get an aftermarket knuckle (which includes a pre-installed 14mm ball joint)... or call FPG and triple verify that they actually have the original knuckle assembly in stock. (which would be a miracle at this point)

AGAIN... the ball joint is part of the knuckle... NOT the control arm.

 

[LunaEros]

Ok. I think I might've figured it out. I had an idea and decided to go to Advance Auto's site to look at pics of the ball joints.
They all look like the outside of the threads are the same size as the shaft.
And the brands they have are TRW, Rare Parts, Moog and Driveworks.
All of them had both 14mm and 16mm except for Driveworks. They have a 14mm one.
But even though none of the others were any more specific with fitment details the Driveworks one was.
It says the 14mm one is fits up to a build date of March 5, 2002. So that must have been the changeover date.
I thought midyear would be around January when mine was built. Unless midyear was just was meant non-specifically.
Oh well. At least it seems clear now.
Though it does make me wonder about my chain tensioners though. I read somewhere on here that they started putting the metal tensioners in sometime in the middle of the 2002 production run.

 

[LunaEros]

Because then anybody could do it. Even the ones that are a danger to themselves.

I don't care what the receipts you have say... because they seem bogus... like the mechanic padded his time so he could make more $$$ on an easy repair.

He probably did replace all the control arms... with cheap aftermarket ones. The easy way to tell that... is because the OEM ones will have a "Ford, Motorcraft, or Jaguar" badge cast into them...
and will typically have the part number on the control arms too.

You are way overthinking things and making this harder than it has to be. Reminds me of someone else on here.

I just called my local dealer and gave them your VIN #. So I did YOUR "leg work" for YOU.

They said the knuckle/ball joint is 14mm, but is obsolete. They also said that there WAS a conversion "kit" that converted everything over to the 16mm ball joint... but that is now obsolete too. THAT might be why FPG is showing 16mm lower contol arms... but the ball joint isn't part of the contol arm on an LS.

The conversion kit would have included a new knuckle, lower control arm, rotor, and wheel hub (not spindle)... but as I said... it is obsolete too.

So... you have 2 choices. Get an aftermarket knuckle (which includes a pre-installed 14mm ball joint)... or call FPG and triple verify that they actually have the original knuckle assembly in stock. (which would be a miracle at this point)

AGAIN... the ball joint is part of the knuckle... NOT the control arm.

You don't have to get snippy. I KNOW where the ball joint mounts. And like I said all the ball joint and stabilizer link both look like AND have no excess play like they've been replaced.
The only thing that doesn't is the lower control arm bushings.

 

[04_Sport_LS]

I made the simple suggestion for you to call the dealer... and you still insisted on going in circles... and getting hung up on part number prefixes.

It was literally a 3 minute conversation to find out all the information I gave you.

Snippy ??? Maybe... but how much longer would you have gone in circles before calling the dealer???

Would you have possibly ordered the wrong part due to your confusion??? Maybe.

Problem solved... you're welcome. Move on.

(why do I feel like RigsLS all of a sudden? )

 

[LunaEros]

Well if you must know I can't hear on the phone. That's why I tried using the dealer websites.
But if you notice, I found out on my own right before you posted your reply about you calling the dealer.
Thank You.

 

[FDR]

15 years of best guesses about the 14/16 changeover and at least 10 years of budget/shady/junkyard repairs is exactly why I don't bother trying to explain that it might be trim, it might be year, it might be mid year, it might be mid year of one trim, VIN should work, and just say "measure it" or buy a 14 and 16mm nut to check if you don't have calipers