upper ball joint to uni-ball

[rngrdngr]

so as all you a-arm people know how much thas upper ball joints piss you off from breaking so easly im changing the upper ones out with uniballs. im in school and have a shit hole job that pays nothing so have patiance and i will take pics of my work and do a full write up with specs so you guys can do it to ur trucks and not have to find all the info. just give me some time. i hope to have it done in 2 weeks.

 

[84projectFORD]

haha had the same thing happen to me in my chevy HD. ill be building some like you are, just gotta find the right tapered bolt for the hole in the spindle and decide on what size uni-ball i wanna use. Good Luck man!

 

[rngrdngr]

thanx.

 

[odie1969]

I want to see this to see how it is done I would like to do this to my truck. and like to build a set of A-arms that are ext. if you would like to do a set of those also.

 

[rngrdngr]

I want to see this to see how it is done I would like to do this to my truck. and like to build a set of A-arms that are ext. if you would like to do a set of those also.

been a long time since i heard from you. think i was in az lookin for jobs and you told me about that off road site that had a job section.

anyways im still in the process of finding a uni-ball. so far i found one from kar tek and it has a 2in od to fit snug in my aftermarket upper control arm, but the id is 1 inch so if i use it i have to weld a 1/4 in thick plate to the outside of the spindle so when i mill the top hole to 1in i wont have 1/16inch wall. still dicking around with that. yea i am planning on adding around 2-3inches on the upper a-arm and installing heim joints to lose the poly bushings. the bottom im planning on taking the bottom a-arm and building my own thats 2-3in longer with uni-balls and heim joints. if i do this i will make blue prints and send them to you so you can build your own. last im gunu cut the coil buckets out and weld plates in then fab a shock hoop for coil coil overs.

 

[odie1969]

been a long time since i heard from you. think i was in az lookin for jobs and you told me about that off road site that had a job section.

anyways im still in the process of finding a uni-ball. so far i found one from kar tek and it has a 2in od to fit snug in my aftermarket upper control arm, but the id is 1 inch so if i use it i have to weld a 1/4 in thick plate to the outside of the spindle so when i mill the top hole to 1in i wont have 1/16inch wall. still dicking around with that. yea i am planning on adding around 2-3inches on the upper a-arm and installing heim joints to lose the poly bushings. the bottom im planning on taking the bottom a-arm and building my own thats 2-3in longer with uni-balls and heim joints. if i do this i will make blue prints and send them to you so you can build your own. last im gunu cut the coil buckets out and weld plates in then fab a shock hoop for coil coil overs.

Nice I cant wait to see it. And it sounds like you are doing good i back in Cali. I thought i seen your truck the other day when I was out in AJ, but I guess not.

 

[rngrdngr]

Nice I cant wait to see it. And it sounds like you are doing good i back in Cali. I thought i seen your truck the other day when I was out in AJ, but I guess not.

when you say the other day do you mean lile last week or superbowl sunday?

 

[odie1969]

It may have been around the superbowl.

 

[rngrdngr]

so i finally got some time to continue on my upgrade and WAM!! i got screwed again. ordered 2inch uniball cups to weld into the a-arm and a 7/8 uniball with high misalignment spacers only to find out that the hole for the ball joint shaft is bigger then the bolt i would have to use for the uniball setup. now it looks like im gunna have to buy a bigger cup and cut the 2inch diameter tube off my a-arm and weld in a bigger one for the bigger cup for the bigger uniball for a bigger bolt. unless i can figure something else out that wont cost so damn much. cost 200 for 2 cups w/ snap rings, 2 uniballs and 4 misalignment spacers. let you guys know more when i get some more info.

 

[oldgreen]

If you get it to work with the stock knuckle, the knuckle will become the weak point. We have broken 3 stock steering knuckles in the last year (All passenger side and all near the LCA balljoint). We don't break the upper ball joint because we have limit straps to prevent binding.

Uniballs are a GREAT idea, but you should go with aftermarket knuckles that are made for them. The next issue you are going to run into after you fix the ball joint binding is binding on the TRE under droop. Again, Limit straps will fix that issue or you can go with Heim/clevis style steering linkage and then your issue becomes hitting the UCA on the frame (again, limit straps!!! and make sure you aren't bottoming out your shocks.

Since we are STUCK with stock parts per class rules in our race truck, we can tell you guys what the weak links are.