Reinstalling ball joints & knuckles

What's the procedure on a D44? I've got the ball joints installed in the knuckles, but what do I need to do to bolt them back up to the inner C's? Do I need to torque that little threaded insert for the top ball joint or what? :dunno:

I've been wading through a ton of BS over the last 3 days of searching, so if somebody can point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it! :cheers:

Billy

JeepFreak21 said:

What's the procedure on a D44? I've got the ball joints installed in the knuckles, but what do I need to do to bolt them back up to the inner C's? Do I need to torque that little threaded insert for the top ball joint or what? :dunno:

I've been wading through a ton of BS over the last 3 days of searching, so if somebody can point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it! :cheers:

Billy

Click to expand...

If the balljoints are in the knuckle you should only have to tighten the bottom balljoint nut to pull knuckle onto the axle. Make sure the snaprings are install to hold the ball joint in place on the knuckle. If you cant get the nut started use bfh to kock it on far enough to get the nut started, toque the nut to 90 ft/lbs.

Sierra Drifter said:

If the balljoints are in the knuckle you should only have to tighten the bottom balljoint nut to pull knuckle onto the axle. Make sure the snaprings are install to hold the ball joint in place on the knuckle. If you cant get the nut started use bfh to kock it on far enough to get the nut started, toque the nut to 90 ft/lbs.

Click to expand...

OK, so nothing special with that threaded insert for the top ball joint? It's notched like it requires a special socket or something.
Thanks!
Billy

JeepFreak21 said:

OK, so nothing special with that threaded insert for the top ball joint? It's notched like it requires a special socket or something.
Thanks!
Billy

Click to expand...

The insert does require a special socket. They can be replaced with special tapered inserts to adjust camber or caster. But typicaly you don't need to do anything with them.

Sierra Drifter said:

The insert does require a special socket. They can be replaced with special tapered inserts to adjust camber or caster. But typicaly you don't need to do anything with them.

Click to expand...

thats half right...

back the threaded adjuster most all the ways out...

install the knuckle, tighten the lower bolt to spec (150 ft*lbs comes to mind)

tighten down the threaded adjuster to set the pre-load on the ball joints - it should take something like 12lbs? 12oz? (dont know the number there) on a fish scale to move the knuckle...

then tighten the top joint to spec, then tighten it more to get the cotter pin to line up...

Start with the bottom ball joint nut TQ80ft lbs, then the threaded insert gets 50ft lbs, finish the top one off with 100ft lbs. If you're runnig oversized tires add 10ft lbs to each number.

XJ_ranger said:

thats half right...

back the threaded adjuster most all the ways out...

install the knuckle, tighten the lower bolt to spec (150 ft*lbs comes to mind)

tighten down the threaded adjuster to set the pre-load on the ball joints - it should take something like 12lbs? 12oz? (dont know the number there) on a fish scale to move the knuckle...

then tighten the top joint to spec, then tighten it more to get the cotter pin to line up...

Click to expand...

I dont' know if the procedure varies by manufacturer, but my D44 is out of a 78 F250 and the Ford FSM says:

Torgue bottom balljoint nut to 90 ft/lbs.
Torque adjusting sleeve to 40 ft lbs
Then the upper ball joint nut is torqued to to 90 ft/lbs.
If the knuckle requires more than 26 lbs of force to turn, the ball joints will have to be replaced.

Sierra Drifter said:

I dont' know if the procedure varies by manufacturer, but my D44 is out of a 78 F250 and the Ford FSM says:

Torgue bottom balljoint nut to 90 ft/lbs.
Torque adjusting sleeve to 40 ft lbs
Then the upper ball joint nut is torqued to to 90 ft/lbs.
If the knuckle requires more than 26 lbs of force to turn, the ball joints will have to be replaced.

Click to expand...

My axle is from a '76 F-100 and my knuckles are from an '85 Blazer...

Should I get a Chevy FSM, cross-multiply and divide? :wierd:...

I'll just go with the Ford FSM.

Thanks,
Billy

JeepFreak21 said:

My axle is from a '76 F-100 and my knuckles are from an '85 Blazer...

Should I get a Chevy FSM, cross-multiply and divide? :wierd:...

I'll just go with the Ford FSM.

Thanks,
Billy

Click to expand...

By the way, I have seen a couple of instances where it was imposible to turn the adjusting sleeve without destroying it. We just left it and torqued the balljoint nuts. It did not cause any problem, there is no movement at the sleeve so it's not like it wears down.

Ummm.... how do I keep the ball joint from spinning when I'm tightening/torquing it?

Hopefully I've just had too much to drink tonight and I'm missing something simple.

Thanks,
Billy

I just thought I would update this for the sake of future searches.

Most of the threads I read suggested using a floor jack to apply pressure to the bottom of the knuckle, which will stop the ball joint from spinning with the nut... well, that would probably work great if this axle was under a vehicle... but it's not... and the only other suggestion I found was to smack the bottom ball joint with a dead blow hammer and try to "set" it before attempting to tighten the nut.

Well, that's what I did and what a PITA it was! I smacked it about as hard as I could with my 28oz dead blow hammer. I would get anywhere from a quarter turn to a full turn before I would have to hit it again. This made for a very long process!

I actually thought about trying to use the ball joint press to keep pressure on the ball joint while I tightened the nut, but I would have had to rent one, and I didn't know if it would work anyway, so I just stuck it out with the dead blow method.

Once I finally got the bottom one tight, I set out for the socket used to tighten the upper balljoint adjustment sleeve. After striking out at all the parts houses locally, I found it at PartsMike.com.

I ended up torquing the lower ball joint to 90 ft/lbs, then the adjusting sleeve to 40 ft/lbs, then the upper to 90 ft/lbs like was suggested. It felt about right.

Billy