Ball joint help

[broncomike629]

Okay, so trying to get my 71 together and the upper ball joint doesn’t look right. I torqued the lower but when I use the spanner socket to tighten down the centric for the upper it threads out the bottom about 1/4” below the axle before I get any resistance on the turning. Is this right? Everything on the spindle side seems to line up and I am getting proper turning resistance but the old ones definitely did not allow the centric to turn in as much. I just want to be sure it’s not a ball joint issue before I continue assembling things. I used new Moog ball joints k8194t and k8195t.

 

[bronkenn]

Are you using the proper procedure for tightening the ball joints? It is on here somewhere or I have it in the service manual out in the shop if you need it. Ken

 

[broncomike629]

I did it this way:
Installed the ball joints, started the centric in the axle loosely, tightened the lower to 100ft lbs, then tightened the centric until there was steering resistance then tightened too nut to 70ft lbs and cotter pin. Everything feels right steering wise but the threads from the centric hang down below the axle ear by about 1/4”

 

[bronkenn]

I believe the resistance is to be measured after the upper is torqued. I think it is about 25# as measured at the tie rod hole. I use a digital fish scale for this. I'll go out and get the manual to make sure about it.Ken

 

[hankjr]

I think I had the same problem on my 71. All seemed to be in line and proper except that upper joint fit. I haven’t run mine yet so no performance data. Im curious what comes out of this discussion

Hank

 

[bronkenn]

The manual says to tighten lower ball joint to 70-90 ft lbs then tighten the adjusting sleeve to 40 ft lbs and finish by tightening upper joint to100 ft lbs. Steering resistance should not exceed 26 ft lbs when measured at the knuckle. Ken

 

[broncodriver99]

That is a pretty common thing that has come up with the Moog joints. Mine are the same way and I haven't had any issues. I seems like they changed something about the joints about 10 years ago. That's when the discussion about the upper sleeve protruding through the knuckle started coming up. I know Spicer joints don't do it but the Moog's do.

 

[DirtDonk]

Unfortunately it's coming up with all the brands I've used recently.
You're correct to question it, because they NEVER did that in the old days (or at least that I ever heard prior to the internet that is).
You might see 1 or 2 threads poking out of the bottom, but never more than that. The last two sets I did I got literally over half the sleeve out(!) before it started to get near where it should be on the torque scale. So your 1/4" seems semi-reasonable from here.

In my case, I didn't want that much sleeve unsupported so I just ran them back up until they were just barely sticking out and put it all together for the check.
Because nothing was loose, and the knuckle-turn reading on the fish-scale was within spec still, I ran them that way.

Didn't like it, but ran 'em anyway and have not had any trouble with any of the Broncos (yet?) so far. Most of them don't get many miles put on them though, so not sure how long it would take for any trouble to show up anyway. They do get wheeled hard still though, so we will see.

But the bottom line is that when I did not have any perceptable loose joints and the pull-torque was correct, I'm not too worried.

Paul