Order of operations: front suspension Options

[rjames]

Double post

[rjames]

On to the ball joints. I made the mistake of trying to reuse the old ball joint nuts. They looked to be in decent shape, but the tool kept sliding off because the top corners were rounded a bit. After wasting too much time trying to make them work, I finally bought new ones.

This tool is stout and Jim Tidwell who makes them it amazing. I found his contact info on Pelican. He ships the tool before getting payment because he wants to make sure you're happy with it first. I'm sure he never gets one returned. It's a work of art.


After receiving the new nuts, getting them torqued to spec with the tool was done in a few minutes with a flat-backed wrench and a jack.


Lock washer (or whatever it's called) and pin installed (washer now in need of a little touch-up paint).


BTW, most (all?) of the posts I saw about installing ball joints had you first install them to the control arm on the car, and then attach the ball joint to the strut housing. I think it was easier to attach ball joint to the strut housing off the car, and then install the whole thing to the control arm that was already on the car.

Next up: tie rod ends and torsion bars as soon as I receive the bars from Sierra Madre to replace the defective one I received. Two steps forward, one step back.