norvalwilhelm

After going for a long run on Strider this morning I pulled the drivers ball joint out of my car. It took about 10 minutes to get the upper A arm completely out and on the bench.
This is how it is done. My car is on jack stands without any wheels on so it is a little easier for me but if you start from scratch this is how it is done.
Place a jack under the frame just behind the wheel and jack it up high enough to remove the wheel.
Remove the cotter pin and back off the nut 11/16 wrench till there is about 1/2 inch gap but the nut is still well on the thread.
There are 2 flats on the splindle where the ball joint taper passes through. I gave one of these flats a couple of good cracks with a hammer and the ball joint taper snapped down. Remember the spring is helping you pull the joint apart.
I then put a GOOD jack under the Lower A arm, I would recommend removing the shock , I did not and it caused a little problem.
Anyway with a good jack under the lower A arm take the weight off the jack behind the wheel, Just start jacking untill the car starts to raise up. It is now safe to remove the castle nut from the upper ball joint.
Have a piece of safety wire handy. At this point I just raised up the ball joint complete with the upper A arm and it slit out of the taper. I then used the saftey wire to wire up the spindle to keep it from flopping over. There is a hole in the frame for the wire to pass through and put it through the spindle taper.
Now undo the 2 nuts , keeping track of the shims. not that they will be right in the future but I still kept track of them for putting back together.
After the 2 nuts were undone I was able to lift the upper A arm out.
My car do not run a fan shroud and my alternator is on the passengers side and my power steering pump in mounted low so nothing interferred with the a arm removal.
I timed it and it took about 10 minutes.
Once I had the A arm on the bench I removed the old ball joint and tried the new extended one from Roger, not the ones I ordered.
Anyway the main body was .100 bigger then the old one so I will try a flapper wheel to open the A arm. A mill would make really short work of it but I will use the flapper wheel and drill like most would.
Next the 4 holes will work out perfectly. It will be no problem to drill the holes using the ball joint as a guide and install 4 bolts.
The problem is the taper. The ball joint from Rogers would not go all the way through. I miked his vs mine and they are about .020 different but this is enough. I ordered the large ball joint because this is what I believed would work. I will have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to find out if the ones I ordered or not are the right tapper. The angle is right 7 degrees but I might need the medium size not the large.
For me this is not a problem since I have the reamer and a quick pass through the spindle and I can open it up to the new larger size but I want to find out what works without needing a reamer.
So until Monday or Tuesday I won't have the answer.
I sort of like the idea of a larger ball joint for increased strenth but for some the reamer will be a problem so I will find out once my full size ball joints arrive.

Pete79L82

Norval:

What part number ball joint did you try and how do they compare length wise to the Vette joint?

Monty

Once again, thanks for going through all the effort of doing the R/D on this. I'd really love to replace my screw in, low-friction, monoball ball joints with these adjustable ball joints. I ordered the Performance Trends "Full Vehicle" Suspension Analyzer program. I should get it next week. I've been thinking about fabricating my own chromoly tubular control arms and spindles to go along with 14" rotors and 6 piston AP Racing brakes and plan to use these adjustable ball joints you're looking at.

norvalwilhelm

Pete79L82 I ordered Coleman Part number 833-110-L.
This is a full size ball joint with flat mount. It can be adjusted up to 1.5 inches longer then stock to increase the angle of the Upper A arm.
I might have been better with 833-210-L Mid Size mono ball joint.
Until the ones I oredered come I can't tell if they are right or not Roger loaned me one but he didn't know the part number. It was just one off his shelf. It fits his race cars but he was unsure of the part number.
I committed myself by ordering 2 so early next week I will know.
For myself I can easily make the large ones fit but for most you , you need a drop in joint and something that can be done quickly with hand tools.

Monty I am enjoying doing something. I never liked the handling of my car. The ride is great and the wife likes the nice smooth ride. Even over rough railway tracks the car glides over them without a bump but passing under power, crossing the yellow line the car tries to steer itself.
I will install the #460 spring, the extened ball joints and the 1.250 diameter by .250 wall speedway tubular sway bar, like you and try to get the car to handle better.
I often think about building my own tubular A arms. Coleman sells lots of tubular Upper A arms cheap, $44.80 in all different lengths but the cross shaft had the wrong bolt spacing. They use a standard 6 inch and we have 6.650 or 6 and 5/8. I could use their A arms and make my own cross shafts.
While I am at it I am also installing 4 new bolts for mounting the Upper A arms and I find that I can use 4 wheel studs. They are the right diameter at the spline where they press into the frame.. I also have heavier duty wheel studs and with a little openning up of the hole in the frame I could install these heavier studs.
I have a program for Roll center but will have trouble measuring all the pivot points. I could feed it into the program. But without the car sitting on the ground with the proper springs I can't get the measurements.

norvalwilhelm

Monty. I have seen Roger weld up his own spingles. After carefully welding he grinds them and you can't tell they are not original.
I made my own pitman arm to lower my inner tie rod ends. I carefully made a jig , cut a stock pitman arm and rewelded it back together with a extra 1 inch added to it. After grinding and polishing and powder coating you will not tell it from a factory one and with carefull welding all the way through I have faith in it. Drove if for a year already.

71roadster

Norval,
I had a suspicion that we would need the mid sized ball joint. I will order the mid size tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

Chris

norvalwilhelm

Chris I agree with you on the mid size. I have the lower vet ball joint, the one from Roger and the stock upper on the bench and upper looks smaller then the other 2. I was a Part source and they showed me a upper to replace my vet one and it looked like Rogers but the one I took out of the vet was smaller. The more I look into it the more confussed I get.
I have the taper reamer so I will just ream the spindle out to accept the larger spindle. The larger taper is .050 larger then the mid size so I have to remove .025 from the radius. Not a big deal.
I should have my Ball joints hopefully tomorrow. Also with the large I think the main body is .080 larger then the hole in the A arm.
Hopefully yours will drop right in.
Norval

Van Steel

Do you have a web site for these adjustable ball joints? Also if you want to adjust your center point of the upper a-arm why don't you try the offset upper a-arms?

norvalwilhelm

These are the web sites that Cris gave me and started this whole thing :)
http://www.colemanracing.com/section/index.htp?id=1191 http://www.colemanracing.com/section/index.htp?id=617 http://www.colemanracing.com/section/index.htp?id=629 http://www.colemanracing.com/section/index.htp?id=630 http://www.speedwaymotors.com/xq/asp...qx/product.htm
http://www.drgas.com/promotor/spindleex.html http://www.hotrod.com/howto/50358/index.html
http://www.tubularsuspensionsystems.com/gm.htm
http://www.circletrack.com/howto/1816/index.html http://www.circletrack.com/techarticles/4637/index.html http://www.circletrack.com/techartic...eas/index.html

Now to figure how to go forward.