Cascade Crew

Al Hasse · Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 10:48 am Post subject: Fun with ball joints

After getting the motor in and running decent, I took the car to Firestone for a front end alignment. I only took it in because I had the steering box off the car to replace the intermediate shaft. While on the rack and checking the caster and camber, the tech noticed that the cotter pin on the driver side ball joint had come out and the castle nut had backed out a bit. I don't know when, or how that pin came out (possibly when I took the steering box out), but after sitting in the driveway for 6 months, the nut had seized itself to the ball joint stud and wouldn't move without turning the stud with it.

This is how it looked with the suspension loaded with my floor jack under the A-arm and how it would look with the tire on the ground. As much as I was under the car and in that area, I don't know how I missed this.

Since that nut wasn't moving anywhere, and there wasn't room for my cut-off wheel, I had to go the slow way and use my hack saw with the blade set 90* just to get some cutting room. I cut about 3/4 through the stud and used a pry bar to do the rest of the job.

After this was all done, the rest of the ball joint wasn't going to budge with what hand tools I had, mainly a 4 pound hammer. Now it was time to remove the strut to make room for the ball joint press I rented. The press works much better with the A-arm still on the car than off, the only challenge was to make sure of the vertical clearance with the driveway.

After about an hour or so, this is what the first picture should have looked

After removing the strut, I found that I'm due for some new ones in the very near future

Schultzy89GTA · Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 1:06 pm Post subject:

Wow... good thing you caught that one bud. Could ruin a guy's day Wink

-Schultzy

aaron_sK · Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 1:07 pm Post subject:

Shoulda' come over and borrowed my Sawzall, Al. You'd have been done in about fifteen seconds. Laughing

Al Hasse · Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 2:00 pm Post subject:

aaron_sK · Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 2:03 pm Post subject:

Admit it, Al. You want to come over to my shop and drink. Razz

chevymad · Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 2:08 pm Post subject:

The new joint fits good and tight though Al? I had something similar wrong with my 74 and didnt find it til after I had powdercoated the spindle and was attempting to put everything back together. The balljoint stud had actually worn the spindle hole out a bit. Cause of this I had to swap the entire front end over to the 79 style I had on my parts car.

Al Hasse · Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 3:34 pm Post subject:

It's still tight. I gave it just a little bit extra once I snugged it down to make sure. I haven't compared it to the other side yet, there is just a slight bit of play when checking the camber motion.

83Z28BlackBetty · Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:19 am Post subject:

Damn that was a close call! You make me want to go check all of mine!

-jake