Jeep jk drag link ball joint

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Frequently Bought Together

• Alloy USA Heavy Duty Ball Joint Kit (07-18 Jeep Wrangler JK)

  $229.99

• Replacement Tie Rod Kit (07-18 Jeep Wrangler JK)

  $184.99

Video Review & Installation

Hey, guys. So, today we're checking out the Drag Link Assembly fitting all 2007 to 2018 JK Wranglers. So, if you're looking to do a little bit of maintenance on your Jeep, a drag link is always a great place to start, and if you're looking for an affordable option for a factory style replacement, this is going to be a great choice to take a look into. So drag links can wear out over time. They are responsible for your steering and the ball joints can wear out, the boots can rip and they can cause a little bit of loose steering as well as a wobble in your steering. Now, a great solution to that is to upgrade to a new one. And again, this is going to be perfect for a stock replacement. So, if you have a small lift or even no lift at all, and if you've noticed some less stability in your steering, this can be a great solution for that.Now, what I do really like about this is that it's going to have a zerk fitting on either side. So, you are able to maintain this over time and take care of it, so it is going to last the long run. Now, as far as pricing goes, this is gonna be very affordable at roughly $100. Now, again, this is a factory style replacement. Some other choices that you may be taking a look at on the page are usually gonna have some extra bells and whistles in comparison to this choice. Now, again, this is for somebody who doesn't necessarily have a big lift on their Wrangler. Some of those more expensive choices are usually going to be for high steer kits for 3, 4, 5 inches of lift. And then some options again are going to have some of those extra features like an attenuator up at the top, which is going to smooth out some of that instability in the steering. Now, again, if you're not necessarily looking for all of that, if you're just looking for a factory style replacement to replace a damaged or worn out part, then this is going to be the choice to take a look into.Now, as far as install is concerned, I'm gonna give this a three out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter. You will need some mechanical know-how in order to get this done, but it's nothing you can't do in your driveway with some pretty basic hand tools. So, speaking of the install, let's jump into that now.The tools that I used for my install were a pneumatic impact wrench, ball-peen hammer, a pry bar, a breaker bar, an adjustable wrench, a 22, 21, and 15-millimeter socket, and an electric impact.So, the first couple of steps to this include getting your Jeep up in the air, whether that's on a lift like I have it here or just getting the front tires off the ground with a jack and jack stands. Now, next, you're gonna take off the wheels depending on your lug nut size, it will depend on your socket that you're using. The factory lug nuts are a 19-millimeter socket. It just makes it a little bit more easier to access this part of the steering knuckle if you have the wheels off, otherwise, you don't necessarily have to take them off. Next, we're going to disconnect the drag link from the steering knuckle side. I'm gonna be using a 21-millimeter socket and an impact wrench, then we can go ahead and remove it.All right. So, usually, you have to tap these out because it is a tapered ball joint. Ours fell out. That means it's pretty worn out at this point. We've also removed it a bunch. However, if it does not fall out, what you can do is keep the nut on the stud there, then you can go ahead and tap the knuckle with a ball-peen hammer, and it should release...that shock should release the ball joint from the steering knuckle. So, now that we have it most of the way off, we'll be able to completely take it off. I just wanna completely unthread that nut there, and then we can disconnect the other side. I'm gonna leave it here for right now because I don't want the drag link to hang when we disconnect the other side. We're gonna take that 21-millimeter socket and a breaker bar now and head over to the Pitman arm.So, what we can do now is take a breaker bar and start to release that. If you need to, if you don't have enough room, you can also use an adjustable wrench or a 21-millimeter wrench. Now, as you can see here, the nut is coming off the top, but the stud is still in place. So, that ball joint is still in place, so we're gonna have to actually knock that out. What I'm gonna do is loosen it up most of the way, leaving it on, and then we'll knock it out of the Pitman arm. So, I do like to turn the wheel all the way to the right, it makes accessing both of the mounting locations a little bit easier. Then we can take a ball-peen hammer or really any hammer that you have and we can go ahead and hit the Pitman arm. You just don't necessarily want to hit it too hard that you're gonna mess up the steering box. That is a very expensive fix. However, you do wanna hit it hard enough to get the ball joint out of the Pitman arm.So, what I'm gonna do is completely take this nut off of the ball joint here. It is stuck and the ball joint is spinning if I don't put pressure on it. So, what you can do is either put pressure on it with a pry bar to get it off, or you can add a 6-millimeter Allen socket and use a wrench to do it. I just find it a little bit easier if we take a pry bar and take it off with a socket instead of pulling the Allen key and the wrench. So, just a little bit of pressure will stop that ball joint from spinning. So, what we can do at this point now that both of the mounting points are loosened up completely, we can just take off the nut on either side and completely remove our drag link.So, before we hop into the rest of the install, I do wanna stop down and tell you guys a little bit more about this new drag link assembly next to the factory one and then show you some of the similarities and differences between the two. Now, really these are going to be set up very similar. This is going to be a factory style replacement in comparison to the factory drag link. They're both great for stop applications. However, there are gonna be a couple of benefits when moving over to a new drag link like this. As you can tell on the factory drag link, you have a dual adjustable collar system there on the front, and you're also going to have those standard ball joints. Now, as you can see, we have some very normal wear and tear, and that's exactly one of the reasons why you would want to upgrade to the new system, and this is going to get the job done.Now, what I like about this is the fact that this is not only going to offer you the factory style replacement, but this is also going to have a zerk fitting on the back of each of the ball joints. So, you can maintenance this over time. You can keep an eye on it and it is going to hold up for a very long time. So, overall, this really is the same setup as the factory one. They're both made of a heavy-duty steel construction, so you can expect a factory performance out of this new part, just a little bit better now that it's a little bit newer. So, overall again, this is going to be a factory style replacement, so you can expect factory performance out of this new setup, just a little bit better considering that it's a little bit newer. So, speaking of that, let's go ahead and install our new drag link.So, what we can do at this point is install either side. So, I'm gonna start off with the Pitman arm because it's a little bit harder. Then we can grab our castle nut and start to thread that in place. So, once you have it on a couple threads, we can head over to the steering knuckle and attach it down there. Now, because it's not adjusted correctly, it may need to be moved. All right. What we can do now is tighten these up. I'm gonna be using a 22-millimeter socket and to make sure that the ball joint is not spinning what I'm gonna do is use my pry bar. I'm just going to put a little bit of pressure on the drag link and push the ball joint in place. Then we can do the same thing for the other side, except for I'm gonna be using a hand ratchet for that one instead.So, at this point, what you wanna do is make sure that your steering wheel is straight. And by doing that, you can turn this collar back and forth, and it's either going to pull in or push out the knuckle. And same with the Pitman arm, it's just gonna move the two and it's going to change the orientation of the steering wheel. So, you wanna make sure that once you turn this, that your steering wheel inside is straight. If it is not straight, it will throw off your ABS. So, you wanna make sure that everything is in place before you go ahead and tighten this up. Now, we've already done that. So, in order to tight this up, you're gonna need a 15-millimeter socket and an impact wrench or a ratchet, and we then tighten them down. After those are tightened up, you wanna make sure that both of your ball joints are greased, and then you'll be all set to go.So, that's gonna wrap it up for my review and install. Make sure you like and subscribe. And for more videos and products just like this, always keep it right here at extremeterrain.com.

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