Ball joint's?

[Hoffman65burb]

Anyone have any problem's putting in ball joints? i bought a 60-66 front end rebuild from www.classicperform.com. Anyone use these? they are polyplus. Before i bought this, i bought these spindles from a guy that had em on his 66 chevy short box. And now im having problems, the disc brakes i bought are 2.5 inch drop. Could they be out of a 67-72 chevy truck? ill post some pictures when i can, im on the school computer, stupid hard to post pictures!

[brawley]

you might need a press to install new ball joints or are you having trouble connecting to spindles? 60-66 and 67-72 should be close enough to match up.

[Hoffman65burb]

the ball joint threads dont stick up far enough to put the cotter pin in. same with the top side

[PrerunnerRob]

Sounds like the taper may be wrong, the ball joint taper angle may be hitting the spindle before fully seating. DO NOT try to just make them work, something is definately wrong here! Did you check the hole in the spindle for debris possibly holding the ball joint from seating if you are sure it is the correct one?

Also, can you get the part number off the spindle? If you look up the manufacture, you may be able to give them the part number and find out what they are designed for. If I remember correctly, some parts are interchangable from 63-87(control arms, etc), but each generation has certain specific parts.

[Hoffman65burb]

Ill check tomarrow and try to see if it will seat better. The new ball joints are in, they are from classic performance products. The whole front end rebuild is for the 65-66. Do i need to jack the bottom of the control arm up? i used a small scissor jack from a colt just to get it up far enough to thread on. Could i possibly get the spindles machined to fit if the ball joint seating is not the issue?

[PrerunnerRob]

Originally Posted by Hoffman65burb

Ill check tomarrow and try to see if it will seat better. The new ball joints are in, they are from classic performance products. The whole front end rebuild is for the 65-66. Do i need to jack the bottom of the control arm up? i used a small scissor jack from a colt just to get it up far enough to thread on. Could i possibly get the spindles machined to fit if the ball joint seating is not the issue?

Replacing ball joints would be WAAAAAY cheaper then machineing the spindles in my opinion. Uppers are $40 each, lowers are $30 each for 63-66, I checked for 67-72 and they are significanly cheaper, but before you replace them, I would definately get the spindle application info. If I can make it out in the picture, the spindle appears to have "western" cast into it. I'd contact classic performance if you have fitment issues, they may have the correct ball joints that you need!

Info from Sporttuckdirect.com

Chevy C-10 / GMC C-15 2.5" Drop Spindles:
Whether your C10 or C15 truck came with disc brakes or is
an early model that has been converted to discs, we have a
Western spindle for you that will bolt up perfectly to your
existing ball joints and tie rod ends without modification.
And because they're 2.5" spindles, they won't cause the
wheel clearance problems that some 3" spindles cause.
60-70: 229.95; 71-'72: 229.95; 73-87: 229.95 / pair

[kdrodworks316]

Robs right, I just played this game, you have the wrong spindles. I changed the ball joint to the '73 up style and it all went together. I also had to update the steering rack to 73 up as well, but it was almost a direct bolt on, had to drill to holes for the idler arm.

[Hoffman65burb]

thanks ALOT for the info, ill check tomorrow about the seating issue. If worse comes to worse, my neighbour owns a machine shop and he said if i need anything machined to talk to him. So i might have to take him up on that offer . Ill post back tomorrow if your curiouse how its goin

[PrerunnerRob]

Just read your above post, that is also a posssibility! I'll be checking back!

I don't know how experienced you are mechanically, but you will probably have to go get the lower ball joints pressed out, and new ones pressed in. The easy way I found to reassemble all of this is to place the spindle on the lower ball joint, hand tighten it, place a jack under the control arm to support it, then drop the upper control arm ball joint into the spindle. That way you are not having to support all of the weight of the spindle at once and trying to stuff the lower ball joint into the spindle.

[Demmit_Hemmit's 65]

I had the same problem with the ball joints on my 65...................I changed over to 5 lug by using spindles off of a 71 gmc pick-up..................The 65 ball joints woundn't go on the spindle far enough to put the cotter pin in...............I went and changed them to the 71 and everything went together fine................While I was at it I changed the tie rod ends also because the problem was the same there.........................It really wasn't a real expensive switch but the peace of mind having all new ball joints and tie rod ends was well worth the price.........Hemmit

[PrerunnerRob]

Everything go together as planned?

[Hoffman65burb]

Yea, i put my old spindle on the ball joints, fit perfectly. So i decided miaswell go new, bought front disc conversion from classic parts Thanks for your help!

[txinliner]

Originally Posted by PrerunnerRob

Sounds like the taper may be wrong, the ball joint taper angle may be hitting the spindle before fully seating. DO NOT try to just make them work, something is definately wrong here! Did you check the hole in the spindle for debris possibly holding the ball joint from seating if you are sure it is the correct one?

Also, can you get the part number off the spindle? If you look up the manufacture, you may be able to give them the part number and find out what they are designed for. If I remember correctly, some parts are interchangable from 63-87(control arms, etc), but each generation has certain specific parts.

63 ball joints are differnt then 87 [stem size] 73 thru 87 will be the same but uppers and lowers change a number of times from 63 to 87.Ive got a 65 swb c10 that im putting front disc brakes on right now and am using belltech 2 inch drop spindles 73 to 87 outer tie rod ends with rihgt adjusting sleves.