Ball Joints

[crzngmychvy]

Experts - Do you know if the upper and lower ball joints are the same for 71-72 trucks as for 73-87 trucks? I think the lowers might be the same, but not sure about the uppers... thanks

[Mark Mazzanti]

Lowers are the same and the uppers are not

[1976K5CHALET]

I hate to jump into the fray and get flamed here but...

1) 1970-1991 GM Dana 44 or the corporate 10 Bolt use the same upper and lower balljoints.

2) Book time is 8 hours to replace all 4. With the proper tools and experience its closer to 4 or less.

3) Booking at 8 hours...its an all day affair....so here are some points to consider.....choose your brand wisely. I use nothing but moog....they are a couple of dollars more...but i don't have to change them yearly even if autozone and checker stand behind their lifetime warranty.

4) Proper tools...if any of you fellow board members live near enough to me to drive over tomy house you are more than welcome to borrow my otc balljoint tool and preload sleeve socket. I have seen people try and beat the snot out of them over the years with chisels and similiar type blunt objects with varying degree's of success...usually the balljoint wins...

5) Since you have things torn down this far...save time and do a break job....if nothing else buy a caliper small parts kit and replace the caliper pin slide o-rings...and check the pins on the ends for wear....they usually get small divots on the ends...clean of the actual slide portion of the calipers and backing plate with a rotoloc and apply caliper grease and don't forget to coat the orings and slide bushings similiarly.

6) Since we are this far...how old are those axle shaft u-joints anyways? My first blazer was actually a 72 jimmy....and the hubs never sealed worth a ----.My father inlaw has a 72 K5...same sealing proplem. There is a cure remove the axle shafts...discard (70-72 D44's run smaller diameter shafts and smaller u-joints) that being said.....cruise the jink yard and get a hold a 73 to early 76 K5-10 and take the shafts...backing plates....spindles...etc.and retro fit them to your 70-72 K5....hubs seal nice and you get a bigger u-joint.

Sorry for the long post but i'm out in the middle of no where wyoming waiting on an oil rig to skid so we can rig up and start drilling so i've got an excess of time.

BTW...Moog upper K8194T....lower K8195T.

Doug W.

[crazy longhorn]

Originally Posted by crzngmychvy

Experts - Do you know if the upper and lower ball joints are the same for 71-72 trucks as for 73-87 trucks? I think the lowers might be the same, but not sure about the uppers... thanks

you are talking 2wd... right? on the 2wd trucks, yes as you suspected(already posted ). the lowers are the same 71-87, the uppers are different 73-on.....ALSO , the outer tierod ends are different 73-on. my guess is you need a cheaper dropped spindle (73-87) for the earlier truck? L

[1976K5CHALET]

okay...i'm an idiot thats been up 36 hours and totally spaced the all important 2wd part of the equasion. I'm sorry for any confusion i have created. I'll go over to rockauto.com and try and unscrew my screw up. And post back years and part numbers... my bad.

Doug W.

[1976K5CHALET]

According to rockauto.com

1972 C10 Upper K6124 Lower K6117T
1973 C10 Upper K6136 Lower K6117T
1985 C10 Upper K6124 Lower K6117T

K6136 Upper Fits 95-73
K6124 Upper Fits 72-71
K6117T Lower Fits 95-71

Again i'm terribly sorry for the confusion. I'm tired and have 4wd on the brain.

Doug W.

[crzngmychvy]

Thanks for all the info - I really appreciate it!