Oh, I hear you on that one. The ball joints on my 2005 Ram 1500 are (were) not serviceable, and the lower ball joint required an entire new A-arm. The CV boots are not a replaceable part, and to try and do so would have been more expensive than to just replace the half shaft up front. I went through a wrenching kick a few years ago where I spent most of my free time on the lifts at the base hobby shop. I learned a lot (and cursed a lot) during that time, and replaced everything I could with serviceable MOOG parts. It's actually about time to do some more regular maintenance, but I don't know where to dispose of fluids and such here. In Hawaii, you just tossed it all in the trash, because it was all incinerated. I'm not sure about here, and they don't sell fluid absorption boxes here. I need to change front and rear diff fluids, oil change, grease all the zerk fittings, and mayyyyybe change transmission fluid. That one is a pain because the whole pan has to come off and it's hard to do in the driveway without making a mess. It's about time for new plugs, packs, and wires, but fuck that -- I have no shame in paying someone else to climb and contort themselves around in there changing 16 of all those things!
