does an unloaded balljoint need to be replaced?, want to disprove my friends pseudo logic Options

[enderswift]

hey everyone

heres the context,

I took apart my drivers side wheel to remove a dust ring that was making alot of noise. While i was taking things apart, i had to seperate the lower balljoint from the lower control arm in order to slide the cv from the hub. My buddy says that once a ball joint has been unloaded, like mine, it has to be replaced. I completely ignored this, put things together, and went about my life for a few weeks.... until my car started to make a sound every time i would accelerate a little more agressively. It almost sounds like somethings is loose... i cant explain it through a post so im not going to try. Has anyone ever heard of this whole balljoint thing??

[enderswift]

no superslut for me. this is an st204 gt 5spd. wheel is solid when i try to move it while the car is jacked up. even when i pry it with a crowbar. It seems the suspension is tight. which is good. maybe the engine is rocking so much that its hitting?? I checked the mounts and they all look fantastic... plus this only happens from a dead stop. loose mounts would mean that i should get a knock when pounding through the gears right? Im getting frustrated with this im going to take everything apart nice and slow tomorrow and take lots of pictures for you guys to look at. maybe there is something obvious that im overlooking.

can anyone tell me if this is really important?



This is the offending part from a thread i had before. It was on the drivers side where my current noise is coming from. You guys have no idea how hard it was to track this thing down. Anyway I removed it a month ago because it was loose and made a tsss tss sound everytime i went over a crack. insanity. While i had things apart, i checked the passenger side, this ring was pressed into the hub and seemed to serve no real purpose. However now that you guys are bringing up a 'sealed' bearing, im wondering if this ring what makes it sealed? is this a dust ring???

I dont thing the absence of this ring is causing my current noise as a worn out bearing would make a noise that matched the rotation of the wheel, but if its good to have it in place i might as well fix it while im at it.

once again, i really appreciate everyones input and ideas. keep em coming