my front, left tire area creaks sometiems when im going over bumps on the roads or sometimes when i turn really sharp...would that be my ball joint or due to bad suspension the frame cracked

 

You can test the balljoints by jacking the car up and putting it on jackstands. Then either get down and grab the wheel with both hands or use a bar to leverage against the tire. What you are looking for is movement towards and away from the chassis of the car. If you can move the wheels in and out then its likely there is a problem with the balljoints. There are quite a few other bushings in the front suspension that can cause noises, not very easy to troubleshoot. If the car has over 100K miles on the stock bushings, probably about time to replace everything. When the bushings get old or lose the lubrication they get hard and eventually crack and cause failure.

 

thanks dude

 

You know, I never got that test… it would seem to me that the only thing that you’ll find that way for sure would be loose wheel bearings.

If you jack the car and support it under the control arms so that the springs are compressed as much as possible you might be able to see some balljoint slop if you prop maybe 4’ or more of a board under the tire and pull up on it, but I’m not even sure that will give you a definite sign unless the BJ is really screwed up. In a lot of cases ball joints are built with an indicator, the zerk fitting threads in to a section that preloads the joint and as it wears the zerk moves into the joint, but 3rd gens aren’t like that…

 

Well I'll be the first to admit I use backyard ghetto techniques hahaha. I'm no certified tech or anything, just passing on what I've learned through my own experiences. When I first suspected the balljoints on my IROC bad I did this test and sure enough I had quite a bit of movement. I replaced the balljoints and did the test again and had no movement. My other friend suspected his Z28 had bad balljoints so I did the test again, and sure enough his were bad. He's in the process of replacing the balljoints. I've done this same test to my Z28 and my B4C and neither had movement so I'm guessing they are good. You're right though, its only gonna have alot of movement if they are totally shot and the spindle is able to move.

 

my **** does that too..... when I make sharp turns!! I can hear crackings.... im just going to buy a front end kit and have the whole **** redone

 

What 83 Crossfire said :-)

U need to jack the car up and take the weight off the balljoint you are trying to test.

Than use a pry bar or something and being careful not too tear the boot try and lift up on it from the frt and rear of it. (between the spindle and control arm) If its bad and has slop if you watch carefully, u will see it move up and down.

Just jacking it up and checking it at the wheel wont do u alot of good unless its shot and/or your wheel bearings have any play in them

later
Jeremy