My first ever major project on my 99 XJ...

[BruceB83]

Somebody who lives near this girl, please help her out. PLEASE don't pay 4WP $622 for freakin ball joints...that's ridiculous. Ask for some help....buy somebody a 12-pack and some lunch and I'm sure you can get some help. I hate seeing anybody pay those bozo's money for crap like that when it'll take them like 2-3 hours TOPS. So what's their labor rate now....$180 per hour???

 

[NCjeepgirl83]

Yeah I only bought the ball joints from them, I'm not about to pay $622 for anything! And hell, if I knew what I was doing, I'd install the damn things myself!

But seriously, if anyone could help with this, that'd be great! I'd really like to get rid of these bald stock tires!

Edited to add: So, anyone wanna come have lunch and a few beers with me this weekend?

 

[cal]

Doing balljoints isnt all that hard. There are some special tools required, but I could walk you through the whole process on the phone pretty easily.

It _IS_ however, labor intensive. The last set I did had me with a breaker bar, inside of a pipe, inside of my hi-lift jack handle, and applying heat. I broke my breaker bar.

The new one is way beefier.

 

[ZacSquatch]

I already told her to take it in for a second opinion which she says she has lined up, and if need be, I have access to the said tools and Beer...

She has trouble picking up leaf packs.. she may need help, lol

 

[NCjeepgirl83]

Thanks Zac!

 

[uncc civilengineer]

Do you by any chance remember who you spoke w/ at 4WP... That price seems outrageous... I want to let the manager of 4WP in Raleigh know about it....

BUT, if you really want to get some tires put the jeep on jack stands and take the wheels/tires to 4WP and have them swap them out... tell them to kiss your ass is what I'd do.. They didnt want to sell me 36" Iroks for my XJ b/c they didnt think it was possible... Basically what i'm telling you is 4WP in Charlotte is about worthless... not so of Raleigh..

As for the Alignment... do it yourself it'll take 10 mins.... It's basically what a shop is going to do and charge you 65.00 for... Just adjust the Toe and center the steering wheel....

Also, take the Ball Joints back and buy them elsewhere... i'm sure they ripped you a new one on the price..

Get it finished so you can bring it up to Callalantee on the 23rd.

Here's what my jeep looked like on Moabs and 245x75x16 MTR's w/ RE3.5"

Same lift w/ 3/4" spacer up front and 1" shackles in the rear w/ 285's:

 

[NCjeepgirl83]

I spoke with Kyle Barth at 4wp in Charlotte. He was the one who sold me the ball joints. I did think they were pretty pricey but I'm probably a great sucker as I didn't know what those things cost...

 

[uncc civilengineer]

I'd honestly like to see a guy take it down to 4WP and see if "he" gets the same response...

 

[ZacSquatch]

Katie... get Tim to go do it today... he's easy to convince

 

[NCjeepgirl83]

I'd honestly like to see a guy take it down to 4WP and see if "he" gets the same response...

Haha sounds good by me! Anyone wanna take my Jeep down there?

 

[NCjeepgirl83]

Katie... get Tim to go do it today... he's easy to convince

Who's Tim? And I don't have the new ball joints yet...they're not supposed to get here till 2moro...I'm pretty pissed off with 4WP right now...they seem to only be interested in making money off of me, and that's not cool by me...

 

[ZacSquatch]

99XJSPORT06 He goes to UNCC, green XJ, 3" 31's... mall crawler extrordinier (sp)

 

[NCjeepgirl83]

Anyone in the SE Charlotte (SouthPark) area wanna help me out on this this weekend?

 

[UNCC_99XJ]

Well i've gotta work in GSO this weekend and be in winston by 145 tomorrow. Got class at 5:00 tonight and a weeks worth of HW to do by the end of the night. I'm free till 5....i'll PM you my number Katie and we'll see about takin a ride down there today.

 

[NCjeepgirl83]

Hmm I've got class today till 6pm, but I've got a short break between 3.40 & 4.35pm. I don't have any classes on Fridays, so I'm free tomorrow after 12pm.

 

[BruceB83]

...They didnt want to sell me 36" Iroks for my XJ b/c they didnt think it was possible...

Funny...they did the same thing with me when I went there with my first XJ (when I was unaware of the a$$hats that 4WP hires). I wanted 31's....31's and they told me it wouldn't work. I was buying the tires before I had my lift so what they did was they rolled out a 31" Pro Comp M/T set it next to my tires on the Jeep and said "look...it won't fit".... was about my only response. And I had 2 of their "techs" tell me this. I know I don't have to explain to you guys why you can't roll a tire up next to a vehicle and judge whether it would fit or not. Anyways, I went back inside, spoke with a manager and told him he needs to send his tech's to a a geometry class and that they should also set an IQ requirement greater than 7 to work there. Needless to say he defended them so I left and bought tires elsewhere. Gawd...what a bunch of r-tards.

 

[JNickel101]

Dammit, why cant I live in Charlotte......

 

[UNCC_99XJ]

If you've got a simple floor jack we can check and see if the ball joints are even remotely bad in your driveway in no time.

Dammit I wish I wasn't working this weekend....

 

[NCjeepgirl83]

Funny...they did the same thing with me when I went there with my first XJ (when I was unaware of the a$$hats that 4WP hires). I wanted 31's....31's and they told me it wouldn't work. I was buying the tires before I had my lift so what they did was they rolled out a 31" Pro Comp M/T set it next to my tires on the Jeep and said "look...it won't fit".... was about my only response. And I had 2 of their "techs" tell me this. I know I don't have to explain to you guys why you can't roll a tire up next to a vehicle and judge whether it would fit or not. Anyways, I went back inside, spoke with a manager and told him he needs to send his tech's to a a geometry class and that they should also set an IQ requirement greater than 7 to work there. Needless to say he defended them so I left and bought tires elsewhere. Gawd...what a bunch of r-tards.

Yeah I had them test fit a 30" BFG A/T a few yrs ago on a 15x8 rock crawler wheel, on my XJ when it was stock. They said it would fit and only require minor fender trimming. A guy I met once had a set of 30s on his stock 2000 XJ. When I called them a few weeks ago to ask if they could test fit a 30", they said they'd have to charge me $20 just to test fit it, b/c it would mean putting a tire that's too big for the car on...what a bunch of BS!! They never charged me last time or even mentioned a price! They said when I called last that the 30s wouldn't fit without major fender trimming and that they've stopped doing that a few yrs ago. What a bunch of asshats!

 

[NCjeepgirl83]

If you've got a simple floor jack we can check and see if the ball joints are even remotely bad in your driveway in no time.

Dammit I wish I wasn't working this weekend....

I wish you weren't working this weekend too!

I don't have a floor jack at all, but the guy that did my lift does, he's got several and I'm sure he wouldn't mind if we borrowed one.

I hope we can make it work tho! I feel like this thing is getting blown out of proportion...