knuckle

[drink2mny]

Cool,
Good luck

[Budweis]

boy ill tell ya, i guess this truck just aint meant to be. went to put knuckles on and the new lower ball joint where nut goes on is stripped on threads. apparently when they put it in they did it. now im gonna have to either re-order ball joint and do this all again or try to find a giant die to try to correct threads or get out my sawzall and cut truck in half. havent made a decision yet.

[ljbear]

It's time consuming but not hard to repair the threads with a file. Get a small file and chase the threads to clear the damaged area out.

[Budweis]

yeah thats what i did now i got the nut started but gonna have to find some kind of tool to keep ball joint stud from turning as when try to tighten nut whole stud just turns

[JIMs70GMC]

I wish you were closer to the east coast. When they pressed them in they had to push on the stud. Do you have a pair of thin slip joint pliers, maybe you can hold the stud until you can get the nut past the end of the stud then grab the top of the stud? Or go ahead and pull the bottom joint in tight by tightening the top ball joint. Maybe friction will keep it from turning.

[Budweis]

its got a screwdriver slot in the top but all i had in 1 1/8" was socket, gonna go buy a 1 1/8" open end wrench tomorrow as biggest wrench i had is 1 1/16" and hopefully i can hold it with a stub nose screwdriver. should the new steering arm have to be beat on as it wont go on either. it goes over the studs but stops bout 1/2" gap from being down. tryed to put nuts on and pull it down but wouldnt go down even with breaker bar on it. looks to me like it hits on the ball joint just a little, should i have hammered it down before putting nuts on or something?

[drink2mny]

Hey Budweis. I have been Showing Randy at Blackbird's this thread.
He thinks they might have put your ball joints in wrong.
If you get a chance.
Please email him at blackbirdscustom@aol.com

or give him a call 509-534-5219

[JIMs70GMC]

It should slip on snug, and not take any excessive force. Post some pics.

[Dean]

Are we having fun yet?

[Budweis]

ok heres some pics, im going to go up and get that wrench. lol thats 35 mile drive. i was wondering myself also why i have two c clips they didnt use left in box, there are only clip on bottom ball joints and on old ones was same way, were clips suppose to go on top ball joints? i dont see anyway to put on if so as the inner side of ball joint sits flush with a gap on outerside as seen in pic do to the curvature of the knuckle.the first pic shows where arm is rubbing. its mostly on the rubber and if hammer a bit it looks like may go on.

[JIMs70GMC]

c-clips or snap rings? the upper ball joint will not use the snap ring. I don't think it will hit the ball joint. Probably just need to tap it(steering arm) on.

[Budweis]

after looking closer just a sec ago it does appear to be hitting the metal of ball joint and not just bushing, i exaggerated it a bit in pic below, it hits by 1/16-1/8 in looks like i could slightly grind it? or is something else wrong? i got the ball joints from chevy duty. pardon the pic i made was in a hurry. i know your gonna say it appears studs are bent but they sure dont look bent, to me it looks like new arm bigger in that area. arm came with lift kit from suspension connection.

[Dean]

You won't be able to use a grease fitting on that one joint either. At least it would hit on either of my current trucks. I had to use the plug.

[Budweis]

ok heres what figured out so far.
#1 the nuts with the new ball joints are screwed up and wont work. looks like they have punch marks inside them to kinda act as a lock but theirs no way they will go on as cutting metal like a tap going on. i put the old nuts on and got it tighten down to 80 ft lbs no probs at all on bottom.

#2 on the top ball joints no matter which way i turn the castle nut the hole wont line up which cotter pin goes through. you can see a partial hole where it should be and looks like bit broke or something when ball joint was made.

#3 the arm rubs on the ball joint for sure and no way its gonna go without grinding the arm slightly.


im gonna call chevy duty bout the ball joints but if they say to return them will cost to have pressed out plus the cost that it was to put in, since the hole go's crooked i dont see anyway to redrill it as my bit gonna want to follow hole.

wtf is going on here and whats with all the problems.im going nuts


update: well i got one side done finally had to grind the arm quite a bit more than thought would, had to grind out a notch nearly a quarter inch to clear the balljoint. the pics below show where was rubbing and the one side completed. as far as the hole for the cotter pin i was able to wobble it out and get it to go in luckily. for sure looks like they broke a bit or something as their were two holes. now i can start on the other side, lol wish me luck.

[meathead95]

when i took mine off i heated the arm with a propane torch and held ice cubes on top of the studs did this simultaneously for about 5 min then it popped right off

torch expands the arm

ice shrinks the bolts

it sounds silly but it works great

[JIMs70GMC]

I got my ball joints from NAPA. Budweis I believe murphy(and his law) has it in for you!

[Budweis]

had another question or two prob
one is what actually seals the axles where they come out of the tubes? i took both differentials apart and didnt see anything sealing them. i had a slight drip before from there and wanted to make sure i dont still have a drip. im not meaning on the short outer axle shafts but on the inner shafts where mate to differential tubes.

[wg77]

here is the easiest way i found to get the steering arms off those knuckles. first spray around the cone washers and all over with penetrating oil, PB Blaster works real good, then take an air hammer with a punch bit, not too sharp though,then punch all around the cone washers with the air hammer.the cones should eventually loosen, which is the main problem with getting the arm off,then probably have to still hit with a hammer to get it past the studs.the trick is the air hammer and if you can use a quality one like from snap-on or somethin like that, the better.

if u think those are fun, try doin a 20+ year old king-pin job!

[JIMs70GMC]

The seals are located on both sides of the center section. You have to remove the carrier/ring gear to get to them.

[Budweis]

lol jim should have figured would be a nightmare as well. if i did that does that mean gears have to be re-adjusted or is this an easy job?

[chucks70]

Advance Auto has the castle nut tool or sleeve tool or whatever you want to call it. Use anti seize on the threads. They also have a ball joint press that looks like an oversized C-clamp. works OK. Ball joints on my truck even after seated could not get the bottom retaining clip on, on the Blazer no problem. I don't know if its a good idea or not but I put anti-seize on the steering nuckle sleeves, bolts and between it and the steering arm. I also put some on the ball joint itself. Don't know if it will make it easier to replace next time or not. Used a whole bottle of propane and a 5 lb. sledge to get my knuckle off.

[Budweis]

yeah im all done now with balljoints, i went ahead and bought the tool from o reilly as we dont have a advance auto or auto zone in 100 mile radius. tonight i got the new u joints on the axles luckily that was real ez job. anyone else know how hard it is to replace these seals in location jim mentions?

[Mudder]

I don't think its as hard as time consuming. You won't have to set any gears unless you mess with the shims and u shouldn't have to do that.

[JIMs70GMC]

Just remove the two bearing caps(4 bolts total) and the whole carrier/ring gear will fall out. Then you'll see the seals. Put everything back together the way it came out. Glad the u-joints went together for you. I don't know if you remember, I was doing my u-joints when I hit myself w/ the axe I was using for leverage to press my old joints out.