Rebuild Your Ball Joints?

Replacing your Jeep JK factory ball joints with a set of Dynatrac HD Rebuildable Ball Joints can make wheelin’ life a whole lot easier.

- Stuart A. Bourdon

Eventually those stock ball joints on the front axles of your Jeep JK Wrangler will need replacing. If you’re a typical off-road enthusiast and your JK has at the very least been moderately modified, runs 35-inch or larger tires, and gets a regular dose of trail hazards, it won’t be long before they could be bent or worn out. As a matter of fact, if you use your modified Jeep JK as hard as most of us do, then you should periodically check them out to make sure they’re not loose or unusually worn; also check any time you notice symptoms of wandering, decreased steering feel, wobble, or abnormal tire tread wear patterns such as cupping or feathering.

When the day does come to replace your Jeep JK Wrangler’s ball joints, you could swap them out for another set of OEM ball joints, or worse yet some cheap knockoffs. Our subject was a 2012 Jeep JK Unlimited set up with Dynatrac ProRock 44 axles, RCV shafts, Reid Racing knuckles, and 37-inch tires. The rig had already received a set of Dynatrac HD Ball Joints, and after about 30,000 miles of use that included a good deal of fairly severe off-road activity, we decided it was time for a rebuild. Yes, you heard that right. Instead of replacing the ball joints again, we rebuilt them with a Dynatrac HD Ball Joint rebuild kit.

The Dynatrac HD Rebuildable Ball Joint kit features a heat treated, high-strength billet steel body with a chromoly stem; heat-treated, precision-ground stainless steel (mil-spec) ball; proprietary seals to prevent contamination from fluids and dirt; a greaseable fitting; Teflon-coated wear points for a long duty cycle; and it’s made right here in the USA.