Front Lower Ball Joint Install

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Jan 1, 2007 | 07:34 PM

ShinodaVette

Thread Starter

Drifting

Joined: Aug 2003

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From: Lakeland FL

Front Lower Ball Joint Install Problem

I'm installing the new ball joints in my '81 and have run into a little hiccup. I put the upper in and torqued it to 50 ft lbs as the factory manual specifies. The cotter pin hole just happened to line up perfectly at 50 ft lbs.

Now, I'm doing the lower and when I got to 80 ft lbs of torque, the bottom of the cotter pin hole barely could be seen. I kept tightening as the manual said to as necessary to get the cotter pin in. However, I'm at 100 ft lbs of torque and the hole is still only half visible and there is no way the cotter pin will go in.

Is it safe to just keep tightening until the cotter pin will go in? This is the first side I've worked on; I'm not sure how the other side is going to be. I just had the front bearing assemblies rebuilt by VanSteel. I just unbolted the steering knuckle from the control arms and let them rebuild everything as an assembly.

Thanks for any info.

Last edited by ShinodaVette; Jan 1, 2007 at 07:46 PM.

Jan 1, 2007 | 08:13 PM

Glassbowtie77

Melting Slicks

Joined: Jul 2004

Posts: 2,577

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From: Long Island New York

I just rebuilt my frontend recently and according to the torque spec sheet that I got with my kit from VB&P is says to torque the uppers to 45ftlbs. plus enough to line up the bolt with hole to slide in the cotter pin. The upper should be a 3/4" nut. For the lowers it says 75ftlbs. plus enough to align the cotter pin hole, this is a 7/8" nut. Did you install rubber or poly bushings? Rubber should only be torque to specs after the car is on the ground and at the correct ride height. Poly's can be torqued with the car in the air.

Jan 1, 2007 | 08:39 PM

ShinodaVette

Thread Starter

Drifting

Joined: Aug 2003

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From: Lakeland FL

Quote:

Originally Posted by supervette77

I'm a little confused with the rubber vs. poly question. I put rubber bushings in the control arms but the torque on the ball joints wouldn't affect that right? I know I can't tighten the bolts in the ends of the control arms until the car is back down on the ground. I bought the whole suspension rebuild kit from Ecklers as a VB&P kit and most of it is rubber.

I should be able to fully tighten/torque the ball joint studs with the car in the air right? The upper was a 3/4" nut and the lower is 7/8" as you mentioned. I don't have any instructions other than the factory service manual though which says 50 ft lbs for upper and 85 ft lbs for lower. I'm a little stumped as to why it is at 100 ft lbs and still not close to allowing the cotter pin to go in.

Jan 1, 2007 | 09:08 PM

StickShiftCorvette

Drifting

Joined: Dec 2004

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The torque goes up fast on relatively rigid joints.

You should be able to tighten the nut MUCH higher to align the cotter pin hole. If you are worried about breaking the ball joint, you can file down bottom of the nut a little to reduce the peak torque.

Jan 2, 2007 | 11:16 AM

ShinodaVette

Thread Starter

Drifting

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From: Lakeland FL

Anybody else got any ideas? I hate to file down the nut but that sounds like my next step. I may try the other side first just to see how it fits but it doesn't look like I have a lot of options here.

Jan 2, 2007 | 05:44 PM

72LS1Vette

Safety Car

Joined: Aug 2001

Posts: 4,883

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From: North Easton Mass

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShinodaVette

If you can see half of the hole you should be able to turn the nut enough to expose the hole without harming anything. You are fitting a hard steel tapered shaft into a tapered cast iron hole so there isn't much chance of breaking anything. I just removed the lower ball joints this past weekend on my 72 and I had to whack the shafts with a sledge hammer to get them loose.

Once the nut is tight your torque wrench setting is going to climb quickly while hardly moving the nut. I would just use a wrench and tighten the nut the extra 1/8 turn or whatever to line up the hole.

If you are still really unsure of what to do try asking Dan at VanSteel.

Rick B.

Jan 2, 2007 | 08:09 PM

7T1vette

Team Owner

Joined: Jan 2006

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From: Crossville TN

Just make sure the surfaces the nut is riding on are clean (no excess friction on the nut). Also, the nut and threads should NOT be oily or lubed before torquing the nut. If threads are lubed, you can generate very high tensile loads on the ball joint at much lower torque numbers. Threads should be clean and dry to have torque specs that mean anything.

Jan 6, 2007 | 12:55 PM

ShinodaVette

Thread Starter

Drifting

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From: Lakeland FL

I just wanted to finalize this thread with what the solution was. My neighbor was over taking a look at the problem with me and asked about the original ball joints. When we compared the original ball joints to the new ball joints, we found that the nut on the new ball joint was quite a bit taller. When we put the old nuts on the new ball joints, they fit exactly like they were supposed to. Just looks like I need to clean the old nuts and paint them now. I tried finding new replacements for the originals but just can't find any castle nuts that are exactly the same size as the orignals. Since they're in pretty good shape to begin with, I'm just going to clean them up and paint them. Problem solved.

Dan at Van Steel was also kind enough to respond to my PM and had the right answer as well. It's really nice to have so many helpful people around here.

Thanks everybody!

Last edited by ShinodaVette; Jan 6, 2007 at 01:06 PM.