I can look back over the years, and see how much help I've received! The '98 is still the family ride. I'm taking a break atm, I'm replacing the driver side hub, axle, and ball joint. Of course, refreshed myself via the thread 3 years ago! I ended up using some stimulus $$ to have the other side done back then. But the growling noise from the driver'* side, sounding like I had a 36" non-radial mud tire on there! Swapped out the rim & tire first, it wasn't that. Bought the parts when my tax refund came in, and was waiting for the weather to cooperate! Besides the usual winter colds. Anyway, going back out in a few, to hopefully press the old ball joint out, and start reassembling!

Thanks for posting this! It'* rare to hear from the folks who find a lot of their answers just by searching around. Glad to see your Bonne still roaming the world doing its thing!

Well, as soon as I opened the new ball joint, I realized the original was factory riveted on!! I went through that with the upper ones on my Aerostar. I used a grinder w/a cutting wheel to cut through the tops of the rivets. After some thought and experimenting, I cut through the rivet vertically, and as far through the ball joint base plate as I could. Then, I used a random bolt about 1" long, held it with needle nose pliers, and pounded them out. I'd just finished tightening up the hub, when I noticed I'd forgotten to put on the dust shield that the abs connector clips to. At that point, I figured I'd accomplished enough for the day.

Success! Riding smooth and quiet. Even the alignment is close. Next projects include front brakes, hoses and calipers. The pads wear much faster on the passenger side. My coworker told me about how on his GMC, the inner liner of the brake hose had a little flap come loose, slowing down the fluid coming back up the line. Causing the same symptom as mine.