New ball joints and bearings, now steering won’t return to center.

[Cortez]

Looking for some pointers, here’s what I know. I just replaced ball joints and bearings on my d44 front end and it’s driving funky…won’t return to center after turning a corner.

1. preload on the upper ball joint adjustment set to 20 ft lbs and measured 25lb resistance on knuckles prior to adding the castle nut at 100 ft lbs torque. Toe-in set to 1/4” same as prior to the work at was done.

2. after tightening the castle nut to 100 the resistance on the knuckles seemed much higher and therefore I think the knuckle resistance might be prohibiting the steering from easily returning to center.

3. does camber affect the return to center? I have shims on the spindles and think I got them set same as the original but question would the camber affect the ability to return to center.

give me your ideas and question…thanks y’allol.

Dave

 

[Yeller]

Few things, I for one find this to be a common issue, that usually self corrects in a few miles, few being a 100-400. Knuckle turning pressure increased after tightening the nut, to me that means the stud was spinning inside the preload nut, or wasn’t tight enough to start with, which may or may not be the case and may or may not be an issue. The variables is what makes this so difficult, the variables can be small but often can add up. Camber shims are another, loss of camber reduces wheel centering, it’s not as important as caster but it does help. You didn’t say anything about axle joints, were they smooth and easy to move? That will cause this same issue. The other is what is your caster? May have had enough to center worn ball joints but not enough to center new ball joints.

Lastly there may be nothing wrong other than the new parts are now tight and the old ones were loose enough to have it self center. It may just need driven to make everything be happy, however if you doubt your ball joint preload that is typically easy enough to test without disassembling everything. Loosen the ball joints knock the seats loose and redo the procedure.

If you did the procedure incorrectly it may tell you rather quickly in a few thousand miles by needing BJ’s again.

 

[Cortez]

Few things, I for one find this to be a common issue, that usually self corrects in a few miles, few being a 100-400. Knuckle turning pressure increased after tightening the nut, to me that means the stud was spinning inside the preload nut, or wasn’t tight enough to start with, which may or may not be the case and may or may not be an issue. The variables is what makes this so difficult, the variables can be small but often can add up. Camber shims are another, loss of camber reduces wheel centering, it’s not as important as caster but it does help. You didn’t say anything about axle joints, were they smooth and easy to move? That will cause this same issue. The other is what is your caster? May have had enough to center worn ball joints but not enough to center new ball joints.

Lastly there may be nothing wrong other than the new parts are now tight and the old ones were loose enough to have it self center. It may just need driven to make everything be happy, however if you doubt your ball joint preload that is typically easy enough to test without disassembling everything. Loosen the ball joints knock the seats loose and redo the procedure.

If you did the procedure incorrectly it may tell you rather quickly in a few thousand miles by needing BJ’s again.

Good points thanks Yeller

 

[B RON CO]

Hi, when I rebuilt the Dana 44 I had a good smooth feel for turning the spindle lock to lock on one side, and the other side took a lot of effort to turn. I backed off of the inner sleeve with the special OTC socket and tightened the top nut a few times until the feel was the same on both sides, not too loose and not too tight. Then I installed the tie rods. Good luck

 

[DirtDonk]

And you tested at the wrong time.
You don’t test the knuckle turning resistance until the job is entirely done and all nuts are fully torqued.
Then and only then it should be less than 25 pounds. Hopefully quite a bit less.
Something around 15 would be very desirable, I think.

Remember the specification is “less than“ the number provided in the manual.

As mentioned, driving a bit more might improve things. But you may need to go back in and experiment with different adjusting sleeve parameters.
Isn’t the specifications originally 40 pounds? Or is it 20 as you mentioned?
We’ve had this discussion a lot here lately because the parts have obviously changed and the usual torque values may no longer apply. Except for the final turn weight.
If you were to try to get 40 pounds on the top adjuster sleeve, you often end up threading it all the way down into the knuckle and never achieve that torque. So maybe 20 was as far as you could go.
Was that the case?