Ball joint issues.

[onebad65c10]

Good day. I have a problem that I hope I can get some help with here. I have a 65 Swb C-10. I went to replace my lower ball joints. I pressed the old ones out and when I went to install the right side. It went in as it should. Pressed right up to the control arm and stayed put. When I went over to the left side. The ball joint just slips in with no need to use the press. It doesn't even stay in the control arm. I have tried just about every local parts store and I even ordered a couple from LMC. Those are the ones that the right side fits. It seems that the ball joints and the bore in the lower control arm are about 0.010" difference. I cant seem to find the right one. I can't swap out my control arms cause I made dropped control arms out of mine.

Any help would be GREATLY Appreciated. Trying to get this back together to get little more cruising in.
Thank you,
Phil

[fleetweld47]

I had a similar problem a while back on my 64 , The lower ball joint would not fit tightly in the hole and only needed a slight bit to take up the slack . I fixed mine by taking the ball joint to a friend that has a machine shop and he knurled the area that presses in to the control arm . I am not sure if this would work in your case , but it solved my problem. I did latter find out that some of the cheaper ball joints did not have splines on them like the original ones had. Hope this helps.

[Sharps40]

If a variety of lower BJoints are loose, you very likely have an oversize hole in the lower control arm. I suspect you are going to have to replace it, as much as that seems likely to hurt. 10 thou is a lot of clearance on what should be a part designed around a very firm press fit.

[onebad65c10]

The ones I got from LMC had the knurled lines around them. One fit and one didn't. All the ones from local stores do not have the lines.
I'm half tempted to weld it in. Worried about distorting the ball.
If I have to replace them I'm going to have to do both. Don't really want to take that route.

[fleetweld47]

Besides welding them in the only other route I could think of would be to make a sleeve and over size the hole to accept the sleeve and then weld it in , but that would be costly unless you had a lathe and could make the parts your self.

[onebad65c10]

Yea. May have to butter up the machine shop at work.

[T Smith]

Proper thing would be replacement but if that's not an option I'd just tack it in, it's under tension and ain't going anywhere anyway.

[onebad65c10]

Thinking about that. Gonna try something tomorrow then I'll decide.
When I do the disc conversion, may just go back to stock arms with 2" drop spindles.

[Snailed]

Moog K6023 ball joints are oversized slightly to fix this problem.

[onebad65c10]

Thanks. Found a local supplier of Moog. Going to talk to them tomorrow. I pulled my control arm to take with me.
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[tincan1966]

Originally Posted by Snailed

Moog K6023 ball joints are oversized slightly to fix this problem.

Great info, I was just getting ready to post that same part number!

There's something to be said about using good parts and not the cheap crap that a lot of places sell.

[onebad65c10]

I try to use good parts. Sometimes just at the mercy of the parts stores. This is a last minute repair before a 600 mile road trip. Hopefully I can find these local.