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Ball Joint Wasted

B

boise49ers

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Boise,Idaho
I broke a front axle shaft this last weekend and now my semi new ball joint on that side is toast. It can probably be pulled out by hand if I tried hard enough.
Is it common to wipe out a ball joint when the u-joint and shaft clanges around after being broken ? I drove it about a mile to get back to a level area to pull it. I have since learned a lesson to pull it where it is broke after wasting the ears of the shaft.
If this does occur sometimes with broken u-joints/shafts do new ones usually go in OK with out replacing the housing ? The shop I took it to are worried the machined holes the ball joints go in are honed out from the age of the axle.
They didn't think about the shaft banging the ball joint out. They figured it just fell out. I didn't either until I ran the problem by a couple other XJ guys.
:sunshine: Any tips from experiance would be greatly appreciated. :sunshine: ​
 
it does happen, the yokes hit eachother, and then one side rides over the other, this in turn moves the knuckle, and pops the ball joints.
Likely the axle is just fine, replace shaft, repair balljoints, you'll be good to go.
 
langer1 said:
Is it common to wipe out a ball joint when the u-joint and shaft clanges around after being broken ?

It sure is.:cry:
Click to expand...
Now the weird part is it (the ball joint) can move up and down inside the socket about an 1/8 of an inch maybe a little more. Is that normal too ? Just worried the new ball joints won't stay put. The ball joints I wasted won't be under warranty like I thought either due to outside interference causing it. They won't work on it now either because of the slop in the socket. Does any of this ring a bell to any one ?
Thanks Again !
 
Last edited:
there was a moog service bulletin about dana 30 balljoints having vertical play in them.
Don't know if this applies to you or not, something to think about.
it was in the billavista PDF section on pirate IIRC.
 
I took out a few balljoints from my numerous ujoint failures, I would say its fairly common
 
Is the ball moving up and down in the cup, or is the cup moving in the hole?
If the cup is moving in the holes in the knuckle yoke, I'd figure out someway to tighten it up some.
Maybe knurl the hole or spot weld the ball joint in. Ask Old Man what he thinks.
4dy79qe.gif


Don't forget about this sucker, .206 ". It sometimes backs out, if the balljoint shaft turns when you are trying to remove the nut.
 
http://myweb.cableone.net/cherokeexj/BJs.wmv
8Mud said:
Is the ball moving up and down in the cup, or is the cup moving in the hole?
If the cup is moving in the holes in the knuckle yoke, I'd figure out someway to tighten it up some.
Maybe knurl the hole or spot weld the ball joint in. Ask Old Man what he thinks.
4dy79qe.gif


Don't forget about this sucker, .206 ". It sometimes backs out, if the balljoint shaft turns when you are trying to remove the nut.
Click to expand...
Which Old Man I found 2. Thanks !

BJ video. Don't get excited fellas. Not that kind of BJ.:D
http://myweb.cableone.net/cherokeexj/BJs.wmvhttp://www.naxja.org/forum/myweb.cableone.net/cherokeexj/BJs.wmv
 
Last edited:
I didn't hit this whole thread with a fine tooth comb so I am going to ask a couple of clarifying questions.

You say the ball joint has play in it. Is the body of the ball joint moving with respect to the "C" end of the axle housing? Or is the internal ball portion moving with respect to the outside body of the ball joint?

If it is the latter, you need to replace the ball joint. Any movement of the inside ball other than the radial movement it is designed for, is not good. I say a maximum slop would be .030"

If it is that the whole ball joint is loose, the housing is fubar'd. You could tack weld it in place but replacing it next time will be a bitch.
 
old_man said:
I didn't hit this whole thread with a fine tooth comb so I am going to ask a couple of clarifying questions.

You say the ball joint has play in it. Is the body of the ball joint moving with respect to the "C" end of the axle housing? Or is the internal ball portion moving with respect to the outside body of the ball joint?

If it is the latter, you need to replace the ball joint. Any movement of the inside ball other than the radial movement it is designed for, is not good. I say a maximum slop would be .030"

If it is that the whole ball joint is loose, the housing is fubar'd. You could tack weld it in place but replacing it next time will be a bitch.
Click to expand...

There is a link on the posts above going to a video that shows the movement. It is only 3mb in size.
I will replace it and weld it. I'm getting a housing and then when these go out I'll replace it. Everything including housing.
Thanks
 
Last edited:
Scott,

You really need to replace the Knuckle. You can weld it, but it won't last the life of the ball joint and there is a good chance it will fail in the worst possible place on 2HD. I have seen many people try to fix this problem this way only to cause worse problems when the whole damn knuckle breaks loose.

Don't skimp on this and just get a new knuckle.

Just my humble opinion.

See ya on the trails..

Rock Monkey
 
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