Ball Joints why so dang tricky??!!

[scott71]

Okay got it. It is the insert on the new Taiwan ball joints that was the wrong dimensions. I used my old original insert which, as I stated above, was thicker basically. So my process was,
1. Place knuckle on yoke
2. Start lower nut on to lower ball joint. And just barely started the original insert onto top one just to help line things up.
3. Got my floor jack and snugged up the whole assembly by getting it to lift up under the knuckle. Not too much, not trying to lift vehicle, just a few taps of the handle once it made contact. This also helps keep the lower nut from spinning. Another trick to keep the nut from spinning, is to place a ratchet with a screwdriver attachment on there and set that into the groove of the stud of that lower ball joint (if there is one, some don't have it) while you take your 1 1/8" box end wrench and tighten the nut while that ratchet/screwdirver deal keeps the stud from turning. Once it gets tight then it won't spin and you can torque to 70 ft lbs.


4. Tightened the top nut insert to 40 ft/lbs. This time it didn't go down so far!
5. Put on the top nut and (this time) I just tightened it to 95ft/lbs not 100 just because i was nervous.
When I was done the turning force was only about 10-20 lbs of pull. Much less than before. Before I had to grab the knuckle and jerk it and pull back with my body to get it to start to move. Now I just grab with one hand and its snug but moves freely. Before it was definitely more than the 25 lb limit.
I hope this helps!

Thanks for the info. I did happen to find out the hard way that the lower nut is a compression nut and can only be used once. Makes you real nervous as you want to get it right the first time.
Scott