upper & lower ball joints after accident

Grrr... hope my insurance company isn't trying to screw me here, so I come
here for help.

A month ago I was in an accident with my 01 TJ, a guy ran into my rearend
and I had to get it replaced with a new one, which is great, but it still
has a clicking noise coming from the left rear drum brake area, haven't
tracked that down yet.

However, when I was hit, my jeep was pushed almost 10 feet sideways, to the
right. My 33x12.50's (mud tires) I think had gripped the road so well that
it tweaked my ball joints enough to get my front alignment outta whack. I
got the jeep back a couple weeks ago, and the shop didn't align it, cuz the
part of town I live in and where the jeep was worked on couldn't align the
jeep with tires that large.

So I took it 15 miles across town to get an alignment and they said I needed
new upper and lower ball joints, and even showed me how much they could move
the front wheels when it was up on the lift. I called my insurance company
and told them that it needed these repairs from the accident, and they just
called me today saying that they don't think it's accident caused but
they're gonna send an adjuster out friday to look at it and see.

Now, I know for a FACT that before this accident my alignment was perfect.
Nothing at all was wrong with my jeep. Does this sound like it could have
caused the balljoints to be loose as they are? I don't ride it like hell on
the trails or streets, I go nice and easy, slow. It's got 53000 miles on
it. Here in Florida there's only mud n sand I've never found a rock to
drive over here. I could use some ammo against that adjuster, because I'm
just getting a bad feeling about this. Can he tell if it was from the
accident just from looking at it? I can't think of how.

Troy

Well.... Those are large tires and the added wear from them on things
like ball joints and tie rod ends is major. Double that 'major' if you
have wider backspaced rims and run in sand. Sand and mud puts a pile of
lateral stress on when turning.

I wish you luck, but doubt the adjuster will buy the slide as the wear
cause.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Troy wrote:
>
> Grrr... hope my insurance company isn't trying to screw me here, so I come
> here for help.
>
> A month ago I was in an accident with my 01 TJ, a guy ran into my rearend
> and I had to get it replaced with a new one, which is great, but it still
> has a clicking noise coming from the left rear drum brake area, haven't
> tracked that down yet.
>
> However, when I was hit, my jeep was pushed almost 10 feet sideways, to the
> right. My 33x12.50's (mud tires) I think had gripped the road so well that
> it tweaked my ball joints enough to get my front alignment outta whack. I
> got the jeep back a couple weeks ago, and the shop didn't align it, cuz the
> part of town I live in and where the jeep was worked on couldn't align the
> jeep with tires that large.
>
> So I took it 15 miles across town to get an alignment and they said I needed
> new upper and lower ball joints, and even showed me how much they could move
> the front wheels when it was up on the lift. I called my insurance company
> and told them that it needed these repairs from the accident, and they just
> called me today saying that they don't think it's accident caused but
> they're gonna send an adjuster out friday to look at it and see.
>
> Now, I know for a FACT that before this accident my alignment was perfect.
> Nothing at all was wrong with my jeep. Does this sound like it could have
> caused the balljoints to be loose as they are? I don't ride it like hell on
> the trails or streets, I go nice and easy, slow. It's got 53000 miles on
> it. Here in Florida there's only mud n sand I've never found a rock to
> drive over here. I could use some ammo against that adjuster, because I'm
> just getting a bad feeling about this. Can he tell if it was from the
> accident just from looking at it? I can't think of how.
>
> Troy

larger than stock tires and now it's the accident faults u need ball joints in
front
i doubt it
now u may need a thrust angle 4 wheel alingment because the rear axle was hit
but ball joints wear out plain and simple and i see this all the time
to correctlty repair this jeep you need to replace ball joints the rotate tires
and ask the insurnce company nicely to do the above alignment

Troy wrote:

> Grrr... hope my insurance company isn't trying to screw me here, so I come
> here for help.
>
> A month ago I was in an accident with my 01 TJ, a guy ran into my rearend
> and I had to get it replaced with a new one, which is great, but it still
> has a clicking noise coming from the left rear drum brake area, haven't
> tracked that down yet.
>
> However, when I was hit, my jeep was pushed almost 10 feet sideways, to the
> right. My 33x12.50's (mud tires) I think had gripped the road so well that
> it tweaked my ball joints enough to get my front alignment outta whack. I
> got the jeep back a couple weeks ago, and the shop didn't align it, cuz the
> part of town I live in and where the jeep was worked on couldn't align the
> jeep with tires that large.
>
> So I took it 15 miles across town to get an alignment and they said I needed
> new upper and lower ball joints, and even showed me how much they could move
> the front wheels when it was up on the lift. I called my insurance company
> and told them that it needed these repairs from the accident, and they just
> called me today saying that they don't think it's accident caused but
> they're gonna send an adjuster out friday to look at it and see.
>
> Now, I know for a FACT that before this accident my alignment was perfect.
> Nothing at all was wrong with my jeep. Does this sound like it could have
> caused the balljoints to be loose as they are? I don't ride it like hell on
> the trails or streets, I go nice and easy, slow. It's got 53000 miles on
> it. Here in Florida there's only mud n sand I've never found a rock to
> drive over here. I could use some ammo against that adjuster, because I'm
> just getting a bad feeling about this. Can he tell if it was from the
> accident just from looking at it? I can't think of how.
>
> Troy