KIKIRIKI

(Edited) aye... if it's not one thing it's another. Got my front end back from Van Steel. Everything's nice n' shiny and I'm all excited to put it back on my vette, aaaand... immediate problem.

I tried putting the zerk fittings on. I got new upper and lower ball joints and this is what they look like:










I have a separate baggy of 4 zerk fittings which leads me to believe they need to be installed








However here's the problem. The upper ball joint has no threads... and I mean none!





Only thing resembling a thread is when I tried to put the zerk fitting in there and it scratched the metal. Am I missing something here? Can someone explain if this is supposed to be like this and I'm not supposed to put in zerk fittings oooor??





And the lower arm has issues too. It has threads, however i can only get about 1.5 threads in before I can no longer spin the fitting by hand:



Is this normal? I assume its NPT so it should come to a relatively sudden stop, but I don't feel good about torquing down on a fitting with only one or two threads in...

Can anyone chime in on this? I really really hate to lose a weekend on something like this.

Oh and on their website they do show it with the same zerk fitting... something aint right

Rodnok1

Tighten em up as is... They don't thread zerk fitting holes I've seen in long time anyways.

540 vette

Just be easy putting the zerk fitting in. I broke one and couldn't get the piece out. Had to change the ball joint....had to take that side all apart again.

KIKIRIKI

That seems counter intuitive... to take a non self tapping bit and screw it into a hole. But if that's SOP then (edited)...

Rodnok1

Didn't say wasn't stupid as hell and I've stripped the threads. I keep a drawer of decent fittings as alot of times the provided are poor quality. Wouldn't surprise me if provided zerks wrong size either.

KIKIRIKI

Well I'll be a (edited).. worked exactly as you prescribed. Very odd. What really threw me is one part was threaded and the other wasn't. Instructions wouldn't go amis here...

Anyways the zerk fittings were yellowish which led me to believe they were soft brass and thinking that it would just get its threads destroyed by the moog bearing but nope, turns out its a yellowish zinc coating and the piece itself is actually hardened specifically for this function. My guess is the the other one is already threaded because the material itself would be a hardened steel.

Also found this little bit online... learn something new every day...

car junkie

I just put moog ball joints in something else, threads not tapped. It's a 1/4 28T zerk, I tapped them and shop vaced the bur out. I don't like using self tapping zerks, the threads usually get messed up and who wants to take the chance for the zerk breaking off in the hole, not me.

speedracer2

There is actually a zerk tap available at NAPA. But 1/4 28 will get you there.

KIKIRIKI

Well it worked as advertised for me. I have a feeling if there is a failure it's more the company making the component that needs the Zerk fitting than the Zerk fitting itself. Because if the female material is too hard, it will break the Zerk. It seems Moog has done its homework, and the one ball joint had the threads as it should have, and the other didn't as it didn't need it (hardened rod material vs "soft" stamped metal). I think its a brilliant solution to saving money to be honest... K.I.S.S right? Counter intuitive sure, but (edited) aye if it doesn't get the job done well.

vettebuyer6369

While the rules have been softened to allow the occasional f bomb, dropping one in 3 different posts is unnecessary and sounds like you are looking for a reaction.

I’ll clean this up so I don’t have to close it.

doorgunner

I have a set of taps just for problems like yours. It's much easier to spend 2 minutes correcting the problem with a sharp tap than 2 hours removing broken fittings.

KIKIRIKI

My bad. Not looking for a reaction as much as just been a long... past 3 months. I'll keep it in mind for future posts.

RBHazelbaker

Hey not to change subject from the zerks (all good info from people) but I was looking at your pics of your upper ball joints with the rivets. I am getting ready to rivet in upper ball joints on my C2. How did you install yours? Looks to me like you put the rivet head on the underside and the shank exiting on top of the ball joint?

I was thinking the rivet head went on top, rivet through the ball joint, and you flattened the shank on the bottom--I have one of those circular rivet setting bucks from one of the supply places to do this.

I have done a few practice rivets through scrap sheet metal (same thickness as ball joint+a arm) using a 3000 med stroke air hammer with the domed rivet bit on the rivet head at about 90 psi. The flattened shank end I get is about 5/8 diameter wide about 1/8 thick. The 5/8 width barely covers the 1/4 hole. Is this sufficient, or should the diameter be wider?? Am I doing the rivet backward, I mean, should I be using the air hammer on the shank end with the rivet head against the buck? Any suggestions/help appreciated.

gleninsandiego

The fittings that came with mine are 90 degrees.
Which direction should they point for the best
access?

KIKIRIKI

They were rebuilt by Vansteel, so unfortunately I cannot give any advice. There is an option to screw it in, but riveting is how it was from the factory.

KIKIRIKI

Either towards the front or rear of the car. A grease gun with a flexible hose and proper pumping handle won't care for either direction. Fortunately you can put them in either before or after you install the arms because it seems that if they go in crooked, it's not that big a deal. It's an NPT thread which means it's tapered. Combined with how they're designed to cut their own thread, and the fact that it isn't holding back much pressure (if any at all), the seal will be good under just about any circumstance. Brilliant little bit of design. As others have said though, be careful of over tightening them.