ball joints

is there anyway to see if your ball joints are bad when not the knuckle is not installed. im putting in a dana 44 and going to replace the ball joint but curious to see if there is anything you can look at or test on the old ball joints to see if they are still good.

thanks

If you can move them around real easily, they are toast. Also, if they have excessive movement, as you can wiggle them and feel if the ball has come unseated, you need new ones.

I reccomend buying new ones anyway. Get some lifetime warranty ones from autozone and you will never have to worry about buying new ones again.

yeah, if your building up a 44 and have it apart now, just replace them. Better to have it out of the way now, than to find out on your third or fourth trail run that they are shot..