ball joint replacement

[mattferguson14]

I replaced my upper and lower ball joints yesterday with new Moog parts. Did the job completely by myself in about 5 hours. 3 of which were spent on one side figuring things out. It's a real b*#!h to do with no helper, but I learned a few things that made it much easier on the second side. I had a pitman arm puller, but my ball joints came off easily with a couple whacks with a hammer to the knuckle, so I didn't need it. In that 5 hours I also tightened up all of the exhaust manifold nuts and fixed my exhaust leak, and cranked my T-bars 2 full rotations on each side. The front end was sitting a little lower than the back, now it sits much nicer. So my question is, is it absolutely necessary to get an alignment done now that i've replaced the ball joints? It seems to ride perfectly fine.

[Triathlete]

Cranking the tbars defiantly requires an alignment. If just the ball joints were done it would really just depend on how closely the new ball joints mimick the old ones. You might want to wait a couple days before getting it though since the front end will settle a bit with driving.

[mattferguson14]

It's now pulling very slightly to the left. I'll Probably have an alignment done, but doesn't seem detrimental right now.

[tom4bren]

I'd say yes on the alignment. Even if the handling is fine, tire wear will suffer greatly if the alignment is off.

I remember my brother telling me that once the tech asked him if he wanted his alignment set to factory or for better tire wear (sorry but can't remember what kind of car it was). Since the car had always 'eaten' front right tires, he went with the alignment recommended by the tech & was very happy with the results.