K10 Ball Joints - what am I doing wrong?

[swissarmychainsaw]

So I'm really confused. The part numbers on the box are "correct" according to online sources.
The upport ball joint for my 1973 Suburban K10 is, however TOO LONG.

You can see that the cotter pin hole is way too high, also way more threads are showing than expected.

These are installed to spec, namely:
Lower joint torqued first to 75 foot lbs.
Then the "adjuster sleeve" on the upper ball joint to 50LBs
Then the top ball joint to 100 LBS then a tad more to line up the hole with the castle nut.

When I did that I'm actually pulling the ball joint up!

Is this the wrong part? Or am I doing something wrong???









Part Numbers:
Note that "meaningless little carrot" huh?



After installation, and torquing everything down, THE BALL JOINT IS BEING PULLED UP! GAR!

[y5mgisi]

If you tightened them in the sequence you described, i cant see how its even possible for the joint to get pulled up like that. The adjuster sleeve would be pushing down on the upper joint.

[y5mgisi]

I feel like something must have been preventing the adjuster sleeve from moving down far enough.

[willett]

I'd take some measurements and compare it to one from a different brand. Get somebody else look it up for you or do some googling. Maybe they gave you one for a 3/4 ton or something. Parts people aren't always right on their first try.....

[jlk]

Not enough info. Are the ball joints in the picture with the boxes for both upper sides? Because 8194's are UPPER joints and 8195's are LOWER joints. Are you changing all 4 and just showed us pics of the two uppers? The lower joints don't have holes for cotter pins, of course, and use lock nuts in stead of castle nuts.

Dana 44 and corporate 10 bolt 1/2 ton AND 3/4 ton front diffs use the same ball joints.

We need to know how far down in the knuckle the adjusting sleeve is. It should be below flush aways or it's not seated correctly. Did you use the correct tool for installing the adjusting sleeve?

[jlk]

Compare the adjusting sleeve location to the passenger side.

[swissarmychainsaw]

Great questions, and thanks for your help on this, much appreciated.

I measured everything carefully with a set of calipers, and the new Upper Ball joints (K8194T) are the same size as the old ones. It took a while for that to sink into my brain, as I was convinced the part was wrong.

I agree that the Dana 44 ball joints for K10 and k20s are the same.
I'm pretty sure now that that parts are correct.

Yes, I'm changing out all four ball joints and did not have trouble with the lowers, so did not mention them.

y5mgisi and jlk both mentioned the adjuster sleeve and I think that is where the problem is. the first time I tried to tighten the castle nut, i KNOW the adjuster sleeve was NOT bellow the top of the C of the yolk.

See I was not sure WHEN to install the adjuster sleeve and the first time I put it in after the ball joint was in place, then when I torqued it down, it did not go down far enough.

Tomorrow I'm going to fix the position of the upper ball joint in the knuckle, then
install the adjuster sleeve into the yolk first, below flush (I remember they were seated pretty low when I pulled them out). Yes I have the correct tool for this.
Then install the knuckle with the ball joints and then torque things down.

We'll see how that goes.

Thanks again guys!
-Nick

[Ski-me]

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=282020

I did mine awhile back and there some pics in there that might help you.

Do you have some anti-sieze on the adjuster sleeve threads? Do you have a flat washer on top of knuckle before the slotted nut goes on?

The adjuster definitely needs to be below flush....

[Ski-me]

The bottom joint should also have a snap-ring to prevent it from being pulled up out of the joint.

[swissarmychainsaw]

EDIT: I just found out that Tom Magliozzi from Car Talk passed away, so in honor of that, I'm giving myself a "dope slap!".

Ok I figured it out, and I'm going to post what happened just in case anyone else does this.

Basically you have to make sure the Sleeve goes well into the yolk "C".

I re-seated the Upper ball joint:


Put the boot back on:


Lower looking good:


Finger tight, notice the huge gap under the Yolk!


This time I put the the Sleeve in about two threads below the Yolk, then:
Torqued the lower to 70lbs
Torqued the sleeve to 50lbs (this time it wen WAY below the bottom of the yolk)
Torqued upper to 100 LBS
(you can see the sleeve peeking out from the bottom of the yolk):


Ready for the cotter pin: