Full width Dana 44 ball joint preload help

[pocketlock]

Looking for some help. Was installing my knuckles on my full width swap last night and got to the preload nut. The best instructions I found that seemed to get me close was to use the top ball joint with no nut in to pull the bottom ball joint into place. Torque to 80 foot pounds. Remove top ball joint. Install preload nut and torque to 50 foot pounds. Then install the top nut to 100 foot pounds. On both sides my socket pops out of the adjuster nut before reaching 50 foot pounds. On the driver side it stops at about 1/8” below the top of the knuckle and has a good amount of tension on the knuckle. No fish scale to measure but turntable. On the other side it is almost 3/4” down the ball joint through the knuckle pushing the boot down. It also is very loose in comparison. This doesn’t seem right. Never teach 50 foot pounds on either. Any suggestions? I’ll try to take a photo of it today.

 

[pocketlock]

Here’s some photos of what it currently looks like.

 

[79INA69]

I have had a couple C's that were worn out before. I have also seen some difference in the factory tapered sleeve vs aftermarket or camber adj sleeve. The higher the sleeve sits to flush on the top of the C the tighter the preload will be. Once the ball joint nut is torqued to 100 ftlbs the sleeve is not moving. So in your case, I would ignore the 50ft lb sleeve torque number and just run it down to approx 1/8" below flush and assemble / check preload.

 

[pocketlock]

I have had a couple C's that were worn out before. I have also seen some difference in the factory tapered sleeve vs aftermarket or camber adj sleeve. The higher the sleeve sits to flush on the top of the C the tighter the preload will be. Once the ball joint nut is torqued to 100 ftlbs the sleeve is not moving. So in your case, I would ignore the 50ft lb sleeve torque number and just run it down to approx 1/8" below flush and assemble / check preload.

I had the original ones from the axle and with the knuckle removed they didn’t drop down as far on the ball joint so I reinstalled by feel on the arm looking for tension but able to move freely. Everything seems to work now but it was a frustrating couple of days trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.

 

[papy]

I had the same issues on a couple of my 79 broncos. I just went with the feel method and it seemed to work just fine

 

[DirtDonk]

We have been talking about this problem for over 10 years now I think. I’ve run into it several times where the new adjusting sleeves will not reach 40 pounds of torque.
In fact, most of them barely reach 20. So my general rule is, as soon as I see threads starting to poke through the bottom of the yoke, I stop there and torque the top nut down. Then I check the pull-torque of the knuckles.
As long as the final pull-torque falls within the specification, and is not either too hard or too floppy, you should be good to go.