Ball Joint Drilling

[Cam]

Guys thanks for all the input. talked to fran. it's a GM ball joint out of a 1990's model pickup. so it shoudl handle the light load of an SLC. That hole is pre-drilled by GM/TRW.
It being heavy duty, i think drilling it in place is an Uber bad idea. I'll just put a jack under the ball joint with the car jacked and use the shock to push down the ball joint. Then i can get grade 8 stuff stacked to make the castle nut meet the pin. Looks like one 1/2"-20 and 1 washer will do the trick

I shoulda done this before driving and putting a load on the balljoint but i was a little anxious to drive. I just hope the tapered stud hasn't become force fit. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Alex]

Guys thanks for all the input. talked to fran. it's a GM ball joint out of a 1990's model pickup. so it shoudl handle the light load of an SLC. That hole is pre-drilled by GM/TRW.
It being heavy duty, i think drilling it in place is an Uber bad idea. I'll just put a jack under the ball joint with the car jacked and use the shock to push down the ball joint. Then i can get grade 8 stuff stacked to make the castle nut meet the pin. Looks like one 1/2"-20 and 1 washer will do the trick

I shoulda done this before driving and putting a load on the balljoint but i was a little anxious to drive. I just hope the tapered stud hasn't become force fit. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm confused - remove rotor, remove castle nut, stack washers, add castle nut and cotter pin. I'm not sure why you'd be trying to remove the stud from the steel bracket? I hope you arn't going to stack washers underneath the steel plate?? (you'd be smacking your LCA into your rim then)

 

[Jack]

I'm confused too! Stack washers (dry) or make a sleeve to get the height needed???????
I see no need to remove the ball joint. Confused in Florida...

 

[Jac Mac]

IIRC unlike these SLC things, the RCR GT40 uses an all alloy upright, along with all the corvettes from ~1984 onwards... So on your assertion Cliff there must be a lot of very worried corvette & RCR Lola & GT40 owners now in the USA yikes!!

 

[Jack]

Jac Mac,

The SL-C uses a hardened steel plate as noted, for front & rear LCA's.

 

[Ron Earp]

IIRC unlike these SLC things, the RCR GT40 uses an all alloy upright, along with all the corvettes from ~1984 onwards... So on your assertion Cliff there must be a lot of very worried corvette & RCR Lola & GT40 owners now in the USA yikes!!

I'm not too worried. The Corvette race cars hold up well (and use the stock pieces in SCCA T classes around 3100 lbs). The uprights should do very well for us at 1000 lbs less. We did just replace our ball joints with new ones and inspected the uprights. They seemed fine, as were the ball joints we replaced.

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

The RCR replica cars do not use Corvette uprights..only donor parts are wheel bearings and balljoints...we do use aluminum uprights though ..they are machined from 6061 T6...
Almost every car I was looking at last night at the Petit Le Mans race had aluminum uprights also...production or full race...

 

[Jim Cowden]

I got it Jac.
These other blokes are struggling with the kiwi humour.

Cameron I dont know why you don't just use a nyloc or a coneloc ,they don't come loose, if you want to get fussy replace it every time when removed.
The stacked up washers look unprofessional in my opinion.

Jim

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

Jim
I got it but chose to ignore Jac ....as usual...:laugh:

 

[Jac Mac]

Jim
I got it but chose to ignore Jac ....as usual...:laugh:

Now let me spell this correctly seein as ow I c*nt edddit it.

Welcome to Paradise where a cents worth of humour has not been banned....yet!

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

:heart:
The race spec SL-C being assembled does not have balljoints at all...not to confuse the issue...but...

 

[Jack]

"Cameron I dont know why you don't just use a nyloc or a coneloc ,they don't come loose, if you want to get fussy replace it every time when removed.
The stacked up washers look unprofessional in my opinion."

WELL, THERE 'YA GO!

 

[Alex]

The stacked up washers look unprofessional in my opinion.

Now Alex is sad

 

[Jim Cowden]

Im sorry guys its my OCD kicking in.
No intention to offend its just me.

If I used a nyloc I would also cut the excess off the top off the ball joint thread.
Bugger there it goes again, ssssooooorrrry.

 

[Paul Osborn]

I
These other blokes are struggling with the kiwi humour.

Kiwi "humor". I don't know why it's not on the list.

 

[Jennifer WhiteWolf-Crock]

Just for clarification, the lower ball joint on a C5 Corvette does not in any way bolt to the A-arm. It is pressed into the aluminum A-arm casting and simple friction holds it in place. My C5 will soon be needing rear lowers. I just purchased replacement ball joints, with grease fittings absent on the OEMs, and a Snap-On ball joint press tool kit, to push them out and in with.

BJP1, Set, Master, Ball Joint/Universal Joint Press, 22 pcs.

YouTube - Snap-on Tools Master Ball Joint Press Set

The cast upright is of standard configuration, taper hole/stud and nut at the lower BJ location, but of stupid design...1 of the 3 bolts that hold the hub/bearing to the upright is not accessible. It is obscured by the lower ball joint nut, so you have to remove the nut, and then split the taper fit, and pull the A-arm with ball joint down so the threaded tip of the lower ball joint is not in the way of the tool to get the bearing bolt loose. If the bearing bolt pattern were rotated a few degrees on the hub, this would not be an issue, OR better yet, if the bearing was slightly higher up on the upright, it would lower the car without screwing up the geometry. Actually LG Motorsports now makes CNC billet uprights with the bearing/hub higher up...and they DO fix these stupid little access and geometry 'when lowered' problems.
Cheers, Jennifer

 

[Dalton Veitch]

Jac Mac, I think there's got to be a Value Added Tax on that cents worth of humour in Paradise, so please pay a provisional amountof $0.001 before your next post.

On a recent large Australian Ford I owned, the ball joint ball was bolted in but the housing was rivetted. So when all these cars had worn front ball joints at 50,000km the housing had to have the rivets sheared off with a power chisel and the replacement housing (which was properly designed with bolts) fitted. Local design.

Back to the thread; stacked washers shout home-made. Then, thinking about it....

 

[Jac Mac]

Jac Mac, I think there's got to be a Value Added Tax on that cents worth of humour in Paradise, so please pay a provisional amountof $0.001 before your next post.

On a recent large Australian Ford I owned, the ball joint ball was bolted in but the housing was rivetted. So when all these cars had worn front ball joints at 50,000km the housing had to have the rivets sheared off with a power chisel and the replacement housing (which was properly designed with bolts) fitted. Local design.

Back to the thread; stacked washers shout home-made. Then, thinking about it....

Dalton,
The VAT or GST will be paid by the end user, although given the latest revelations of RCR SLC's etc being abandoned on sidewalks etc perhaps the owners should be more concerned about local body fines for littering in a public place or disposal fee's that they may incur.

Hmm, yes Mr Ford can be a RRPITA with rivetting stuff like ball joints etc, probably hopeing that everyone would buy complete top / bottom arm/wishbone assys rather than being frugal & simply replace the ball joint on its own.... remember those 'ball joint saver kits'... some clever gunk that you were supposed to squeeze in somehow to stop it squeaking... then a few thousand miles later the whole deal would collapse & leave you with a three wheeler