Ball joints

[mracer]

I put brand new moog ball joint in my Class 3 jeep before the 40Th 1000 . They were wasted when we were done ! The old school racers on the team warned me about this!
They say spicer only . When the jeep was at LeDuce last year we talked about joints he say only napa fleet ! He told me that Back in the class 3 DAYS they actualy did research and cut them open! I dont Know if napa use the same vendor but that is what my billet Knuckle are built with. I as so spent a lot of time trying to incorporate himes in this knuckle and went with ball joint.

[SteveG]

Imported from another thread to add part numbers.

Buddy works for NAPA (in Gardena)...
him: upper #260-1248
him: lower #260-1342
him:the good ones are almost always zinc plated, so they look like a goldish color. the cheapos are always plain old grey steel
the 1248 uppers fit 80-96 broncos,
the 1342 lowers fit 71-96 broncos

[Deleted Account]

for what its worth ive had the same set of napa joints in the truck i race for 2 years and they are still good. btw it not as much about the joints as the big stupid cams people use because they have no idea what they are doing with the beams........ with a 5 inch lift i run a zero on the passenger side and a 1/2 on the drivers side to split caster.. Those knuckles are bad ass btw.

[philofab]

160k on stock ball joints here.

[AussieRod]

For whatever it's worth, I have sold and installed a ton of the greasable Spicer/Raybestos/NAPA chassis parts. I won't use anything else on my own cars and refuse to install anything else in a customer's vehicle unless it's an emergency and the vehicle needs to go NOW.

I agree here. I NEVER use anything but Spicer/Napa/Raybestos ball joints. In Aus I cant find any other decent balljoint for F trucks and Broncos (I buy mine from a USA supplier).

[PELLEY]

JC Whittney has good prices on Raybestos, $32.99 on lowers and $37.99 on uppers.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/professional-g ... 582y1990j1
http://www.jcwhitney.com/professional-g ... 582y1990j1

[hobbyturnedobsession]

If I'm correct rayspestos took over spicer in most areas.

[BajaBronco13]

Did anyone check out these two ball joints featured in Dirtsports magazine?

http://dynatrac.com/products/freespin-f ... oints.html

I don't know if Synergy is coming out with a Ford version:
http://www.synergysuspension.com/Synerg ... 26182.html

Any thoughts?

Chris

[ESHALLBETTER]

I use the Dynatrac rebuildable units in my superduty. They are holding up very well. I think I paid close to 550.00 for them though. The rebuild stuff is about $25.00. I have nothing but good things to say about them. I believe at the time I bought them there was no TTB version available.

[SteveG]

I use the Dynatrac rebuildable units in my superduty. They are holding up very well. I think I paid close to 550.00 for them though. The rebuild stuff is about $25.00. I have nothing but good things to say about them. I believe at the time I bought them there was no TTB version available.

Yikes! I don't know anything about them. What's the advantage of being able to rebuild them as opposed to just replacing them... for a lot less. I'm not knocking them. Just honestly curious.

[78Class3]

A little off topic. I'm rebuilding a bare D44 straight axle. How hard is it to press in the ball joints? I hear its a pain in the butt. All i need is a ball joint press right?

[ESHALLBETTER]

I use the Dynatrac rebuildable units in my superduty. They are holding up very well. I think I paid close to 550.00 for them though. The rebuild stuff is about $25.00. I have nothing but good things to say about them. I believe at the time I bought them there was no TTB version available.

Yikes! I don't know anything about them. What's the advantage of being able to rebuild them as opposed to just replacing them... for a lot less. I'm not knocking them. Just honestly curious.

It is now a lot more comfortable to sit on my wallet while at my desk at work. In all seriousness my F350 would tear up a regular set pretty quick. These hold up much better than the stock spicer stuff I was using. Would I do it again, maybe, but I am happy with the purchase.

Also, to 78class3. No, it is not hard to do balljoints if you have a press, especially if the axle is bare.

[SteveG]

It is now a lot more comfortable to sit on my wallet while at my desk at work

Ha! My wallet is most often very comfortable.

In all seriousness my F350 would tear up a regular set pretty quick. These hold up much better than the stock spicer stuff I was using. Would I do it again, maybe, but I am happy with the purchase.

Got it. Thanks for the info.

[SteveG]

All i need is a ball joint press right?

Pretty much. They're straight forward. Before I start pressing on the joints, I like to give the meat around the joint (the axle-housing) a few really good whacks with a heavy hammer. It helps loosen them up. You can also do this after putting some pressure on them with the press if they aren't wanting to come out.

[300]

A little off topic. I'm rebuilding a bare D44 straight axle. How hard is it to press in the ball joints? I hear its a pain in the butt. All i need is a ball joint press right?

It's not hard, getting all the rest of the stuff out takes all the time. Once the axles are out, I use a 36" long brass drift to knock the balljoint studs out of the ears of the axle. The top is usually already pretty loose, but the bottom takes a few whacks. I usually have the axle still in the truck, but supported with a jack stand near the ball joint. This gets the knuckle with the ball joints off the axle. I then use a 12 ton shop press to get the ball joints in and out of the knuckles. I have a piece of tubing that just fits the shoulder of the ball joints to press them back in. Coincidentally the tubing is from an Autofab cage mounting urethane bushing kit. Make sure the new ball joint is all the way against the shoulder. If the joint is loose in the knuckle, you will be looking for a new one. The Napa joints are knurled so that they will take up some slop in an old knuckle. Follow the instructions that come with the ball joints to install them back in the axle. You need a funky 4 pronged socket to install the new tapered adjuster in the top because it is supposed to be torqued to 50 ft-lbs, and this can be a pain. Tighten the crap out of the ball joint nuts, and then check them occasionally. If you find one loose, that usually indicates one has been damaged somehow and it is starting to wallow out the ear or the taper adapter.

[SteveG]

I don't know why but I was thinking the joints pressed into the housing... like the early Ranger beams.

[apache41]

Ok, I am installing used cut and turn beams and I need to replace the ball joints. The JBG ball joints include a new bushing, the question is should I use the old ones or install the new ones? The old ones are indexable and the new ones only have two slots? Thanks for the input!

[kylesgorter]

this is odd they dont usually come with anything like that. by bushing i assume you mean alignment cam (camber eccentirc). Cams with only two slots like that are a fixed style and offer no finer adjustability.

Are you sure you got the correct balljoint set? do you have the part number or a picture?

[kylesgorter]

I don't know why but I was thinking the joints pressed into the housing... like the early Ranger beams.

yeah but your advice applie nonetheless. put the knuckle in a big vise get a c-frame balljoint press and adapter set you will always be glad you have it when you need it and it makes things easy i cant imagine using drifts and heavy hammer ing. too much work for me haha

[flyinbronco]

Did anyone check out these two ball joints featured in Dirtsports magazine?


I don't know if Synergy is coming out with a Ford version:
http://www.synergysuspension.com/Synerg ... 26182.html

Any thoughts?

Chris

Has anyone tried these ball joints yet. I've got to replace mine before the Baja trip.