1986 F150 Ball Joint Replacement Question

[Gary Lewis]

Congrat's!  Glad you got them out!  

[trouter_space]

Popping this back up for part 2 (3? 4?) - The Lower Ball Joint Spinning Saga. So I started reassembling one side, top BJ torqued right down, but then nuts that came on these lower Moog ball joints have the threads pressed in at the bottom I guess as a locker. Was having quite a time as when trying to torque the lower nut, it was just spinning and spinning.

So then read a trick about using a pry bar to apply enough pressure to get the bottom ones torqued. I was beaming with excitement after quickly getting the Lower Ball Joint torqued using this pry bar trick. Only to immediately notice that the ball joint itself has now dropped about 1/4" out of the socket, the bottom lip no longer rests on the socket in the i-beam?!?! No idea what to do. Top was torqued when this happened so the distance should be correct, right? I remember comparing the original BJ and the Moog and they were sized nearly identical, maybe the Moog was a tad shorter.

Any suggestions? Tear it all down and try again? Try to leave everything in place and press the ball joint back into the socket? Does it matter? Here's a pic of the gap between the socket and the lip of the lower BJ.

Thanks for any tips,



TS

[Rembrant]

That balljoint should be pressed in until the shoulder hits the beam. You'll have to get it all the way through to get the circlip on it, I think?

Here's a picture of mine on the bench when I did them a few years ago (with Moog joints).

[trouter_space]

Hi Rembrant, thanks for responding and the picture.

The OE Lower BJ did not have a circlip on the top and the replacement, when fully seated, also did not protrude enough to allow placement of one. The BJ was pressed in enough so the shoulder was on the beam until I torqued the nut — so I'm really not for sure what to do. To use the press on the Lower I'll need to take the Upper off to re-press it. But I imagine that I'll just be in the same predicament again and getting the nut back off the bottom I'm confident will be a chore.

Ugh,

TS

[Rembrant]

I remembering seeing other people with this issue. I seem to recall it being an issue that the upper balljoint is too low due to the placement of the alignment bushing. If it's too low and the upper is all tightened in place first, then when you tighten the lower it wants to pull it out of the beam. But still, I'm surprised that lower balljoint does not have a circlip to hold it in place.

What joints are they?

[trouter_space]

Huh, interesting. That's a good tip. The lower BJ is the one that dropped. I'll take the knuckle back off and see what will seat.

I used the nut from the old BJ that doesn't have locking/pressed threads on the other side and it all went back on without a problem.

TS

[trouter_space]

Rembrant, that was exactly it. I was able to pull the knuckle, throw on the press, and push everything up back into place in just a few minutes. It was incredibly exciting. I also got the new inner tie rods on - so I have all new steering linkages to the power steering pump, new ball joints, and new rotors. The thing is driving like a new truck. Very exciting and feeling good about it. On to the next thing.

Thanks everyone for your help and tips on this, it was life improving.

TS

[Gary Lewis]

Well done!  

[Rembrant]

trouter_space wrote

Rembrant, that was exactly it. I was able to pull the knuckle, throw on the press, and push everything up back into place in just a few minutes. It was incredibly exciting. I also got the new inner tie rods on - so I have all new steering linkages to the power steering pump, new ball joints, and new rotors. The thing is driving like a new truck. Very exciting and feeling good about it. On to the next thing.

Thanks everyone for your help and tips on this, it was life improving.

TS

Cool! So you tightened the lower joint in first, and then the upper joint?

That upper joint is a bit wonky due to the alignment bushing(s). It can be tightened in the wrong position, which sits too low, as you found out. If you tighten the lower joint first, then it more or less dictates the position of the upper joint.

Glad you got it sorted. Well done man!

[grumpin]

[trouter_space]

For clarity, I misspoke (mis-typed?). I actually left the knuckle in place. I put the press on and was able to scoot the entire assembly back into place by tightening the lower BJ. The camber bushing slid right up along with it, and I was able to torque the lower BJ nut correctly and then finished off with the top.

On the other side I used the nut from the old BJ instead of the new nut, as the problems I had were incurred from the thread lock/indention on the nut that was employed on the new BJ.