Front ball joints | FerrariChat

Front ball joints

Discussion in '308/328' started by jkg2101, Oct 5, 2025 at 5:32 AM.

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  1. jkg2101

    jkg2101 Karting

    Jan 25, 2015
    188
    New York
    I am in the middle of a nut and bolt restoration of my 1982 GTS. as I take apart the front suspension, I find that both upper and lower ball joints have no slop or play them, although they are easy to move around. They feel very dry.
    When I restored my Pantera 20 years ago, which has almost identical suspension, I replaced two of the ball joints, and the other two I just drilled and added grease Zirk so that I could just add some grease.
    Does anyone have any experience greasing the stock ball joints or do you think I’m better off buying new ones? The new ones are kind of pricey
     
  2. Dockboy

    Dockboy Formula Junior
    Silver Subscribed

    May 11, 2013
    634
    Maryland
    What do you consider "pricey" and where/who are you looking at for parts?

    Try https://www.ebay.com/str/maseratisource on Ebay.

    You can get upper or lower ball joints for $100-120 each. Or you can get the complete front end upper/lower ball joints and A-arm bushings for $450.

    I used them on mine and they have over 30k mi. on them with no problems!
     
    miketuason likes this.
  3. moysiuan

    moysiuan F1 Rookie
    Silver Subscribed

    Nov 1, 2005
    4,273
    Canada
    How many miles on the car? If less than say 50k miles, there is probably a reasonable amount of life left in that joint.

    It can be hard to detect a worn ball joint, under the high suspension load an otherwise tight feeling joint can get quite sloppy.

    You can use a grease needle and pierce the boot and pump some grease in there. Clean the boot area with alcohol after, and put a dab of weatherstrip cement on the needle hole for greater certainty of the boot remaining sealed from the elements.
     
  4. jkg2101

    jkg2101 Karting

    Jan 25, 2015
    188
    New York
    30K miles

    each ball joint is not that expensive but it all adds up quickly.
    the old ones feel reasonable. it is easy to give them some new grease. i am going to replace all suspension and shock bushings. Maybe i will reuse the ball joints

    i'm just recovering from the repaint-whole-car bill. i started out looking to have a couple panels buffed out and ended up with repaint entire car....
     
  5. 85QVEuro

    85QVEuro Formula Junior

    Jan 15, 2021
    576
    NYC
    Full Name:
    Joe
    i live in nyc - who did the paint? are you pleased with it? what level of prep did the body shop do? thanks
     
  6. jkg2101

    jkg2101 Karting

    Jan 25, 2015
    188
    New York
    i'll update my main build post probably next week. but here is the inside scoop.

    over the years, i have worked with a true paint magician. he used to work for one body shop but he has gone solo - so he freelances work. he is based in northern New Jersey near rockaway. I put some serious cost restraints on him, and also insisted on a single stage paint. he did amazing work - and I know good and bad bodywork and paint. i mostly dissassembled the car myself. he had to do some dissassembly and reassembly - when he put the headlight buckets and door locks back, he first cleaned and greased them - stuff i didnt ask for. He does all kinds of ferrari and classic car paint over the years.

    He painted my fathers silver 67 mustang - and silver metallic is really tough to make it look perfect. not only is it perfect, but when a tire came loose and scratched up the rear quarter, he painted the rear quarter and blended it so well, that you can not see any blend line at all.

    His name is Rob Pilone, and I can connect you if interested. But you can't give him anymore work until he does a paint blend on the real wheel arch on my 65 mustang road race car, which came loose in the trailer (my fault) and rubbed off some paint!
     
    85QVEuro likes this.
  7. 85QVEuro

    85QVEuro Formula Junior

    Jan 15, 2021
    576
    NYC
    Full Name:
    Joe
    ty for the paint info...and FWIW, I did front suspension on the mondial and the ball joints were also fine so i re-used them...and fwiw, i also have a pantera that i did in 2017 and in that case, the ball joints needed to be replaced - this is the mondial

    Image Unavailable, Please Login
     
  8. jkg2101

    jkg2101 Karting

    Jan 25, 2015
    188
    New York
    I hope mine can look that good someday

    on the Pantera I used stock rubber bushings, but I’m thinking about using the poly ones on this car because they seem like 1000 times easier to install myself
     
    350HPMondial likes this.
  9. 350HPMondial

    350HPMondial F1 Veteran
    Silver Subscribed

    Feb 1, 2002
    5,338
    18 mi from the surf,, close to Pismo, CA
    Full Name:
    Edwardo
    I did poly in the front of my 1981.. all of the sizes are available,, and they were super easy to install
     

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