drop spindle/ball joint question

[cali_surfer]

I had a question regarding ball joints and spindles. I put drop springs on the front of my '69 about six months ago. I don't drive it that much but it needs to get aligned, tires are wearing weird. I'm broke rightnow and can't afford to do the disk brake conversion (will do drop spindles at the same time). Anyway, my question is this, since I'm going to have the truck aligned I figure I should also put in some new ball joints because the ones I have in it rightnow have torn boots, and are possibly the originals. I was just going to have the alignment shop put them in for me. Down the road when I do the spindle swap, can I remove my old spindle without ruining the new ball joints? I want my alignment to be true, thats the reasoning by putting in the new ball joints, but I don't want to buy new ones again when I do the drop spindles. what do you think?

[GMCPaul]

Yes the new ball joints will be able to be separated from the spindle later without damage to the ball joint if done properly, at most you only run the risk of damaging the boots which can be purchased and replaced separately for both ball joints and tie rods, rather than just assuming the ball joints are all bad you can check them and replace only those once tested that show they are bad as a option also and just replace torn boots for now, you'll know for sure that the upper ball joints are originals if they are held in place with rivets and if they are installed with bolts and nuts they have been replaced at some point in time, I find more used trucks it seems that need upper cross shafts replaced then any of the other suspension parts here for awhile so be sure you tell whoever is doing the work to check for all bad or heavily worn parts first and make sure you can afford to replace them all then add the other ball joints, tie rods, idler arm /idler arm link & pitman arms that are still good to your list to replace if you have the extra money left. Don't neglect the gearbox at this time either have them check it for proper adjustment and the possibility of it needing rebuilt or replaced.
Nothing worse than driving a truck with a shot steering gearbox that wanders all over 1/2 the road on its own.
GMCPaul

[cali_surfer]

Thanks GMC Paul

Upper ball joints are original then, still have the rivets holding them in. I would assume that the lowers are original also then. I replaced the tie rod ends and idler arm when I did the drop springs. I just hope I'm not opening up a can of worms with this, I really can't afford to pay to have the front end rebuilt