Not Another Rebuild Thread....

[McMurphy]

Well I tell ya....
Talk about a forehead smacking weekend.

Bad enough I didnt do the proper research and bought the external coil spring compressors, because then I could not figure how to get the clearance once they were installed, to back them off. There just was no physical way of doing it that I could find!

But then a couple weeks ago, I had gotten my upper and lower ball joints and when asked at the parts store I totally told them it was for a 66 half ton. It never crossed my mind to tell them I needed them for a 1981 GMC 1500 (which was the donor front end for my spindles and disc brakes...). What ensued yesterday was a long and painful lesson in trying to install ball joints that were about 1/2 inch too short.



Yes I did totally destroy a complete set on one side.
The threads on the upper ball joint were stripped down to a smooth shaft, and I ballooned the bottom of the lower joint to the point that it looked pregnant!

I am not one to generally string cuss words into full sentences or fling tools (particularly my 8lb sledge) around but I succumbed to the tidal wave of frustration and had the first temper tantrum of my life since age 3.....

Thankfully I have a wife that picks up on these hard to read mood changes and she took a quick Youtube peek, then came down stairs and showed me that it was my lack of good sense, and not my lack of skills that was the problem by holding up the old and the new joints to show me the length difference.
My non-calibrated eyes would have sworn they were identical

Anyways, I should post pics of my destruction so that generations to follow will not forget these awesome details when combining differing aged rigs...

Hope the rest of you had better progress than I did this weekend!!