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Selecting Correct Ball Joints

Matthew89

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Mississippi
Hello all,

I'm giving my front end some TLC and a little worried about selecting the proper ball joints. Reason being, my Jeep is a 4wd conversion (there, it's out). Previous owner did the conversion and actually did a pretty good job IMO. Jeep drove and handled amazingly for the past 50K miles, but stuff is starting to decline now (I'm sure smoking that deer at 65 mph didn't help). I want to spruce up the front end then go have it professionally aligned.

Front axle is a D30. No clue how many miles it had on it before it was installed, I've put almost 60k miles myself.

Industrious previous owner also upgraded some steering components (my memory is vague, I bought it over 4 years ago) so I'm just worried about replacing parts on a Frankensteined system.

Having said all this, how can I be sure I am selecting the proper ball joints? I obviously can't look them up by vehicle year. I'll be glad to post pictures of the knuckles if that helps.

I plan to get quality replacements when I figure it out, leaning towards Spicer.

Thanks

Some info:

'99 XJ "4wd"
AX15 Trans
2-3" Lift, 32" Tires
200,xxx overall miles
 
I may be wrong about the front axle after double checking myself, but I see I can't edit that. Kind of derails this whole thing, but I'll do my best to verify which front axle I have asap. Sorry for the mistake.
 
Steering Knuckles:

1) 1984 to 1989 - AMC Steering Knuckles. Left and right side steering knuckles have different part numbers and only accept AMC calipers.

2) 1990 to 2001 - Chrysler Steering Knuckles. Left and right side steering knuckles have different part numbers and only accept Chrysler calipers.

Any XJ AMC or XJ Chrysler steering knuckle will fit on any XJ D30. They are all interchangeable but you have to compensate for the lack of the threaded adjuster in the bottom of the pre-1990 knuckle when/if you swap on the later model post 1990 knuckles by switching to the later upper ball joint that has the floating pin. There needs to be a mechanism for compensating for the exact precision of the tapered holes which is done with a threaded lower adjuster in the pre-1990 and a floating upper pin post 1990. Some ball joints come with a threaded insert that is used for pre-1990 axles, and is not used when the ball joint is installed on a post-1990 axle.
 
Last edited:
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