D2 Ball Joint Torque

[LFODNH]

Building a 2004 D2. Figured I'd do the ball joints while I was installing the front axels/suspension.

The ball joints being used are Moog on the bottom and Import Direct on the top. No particular reason for this combo, just what I could get my hands on immediately.

So... the torque listed is 81 ft.lbs. for the top and 100 ft.lbs. for the bottom. If I torque these things even 30 ft.lbs. the knuckle is seriously tight. You have to reef on this thing to get it to budge.

I gradually torqued them up to 60 lbs. and you would need a pry bar to move them. I gradually torqued them down in 10 lb increments and landed at 20 lbs before the knuckle moves like every other vehicle I've done. So here it sits, 20 lbs and smooth with reasonable resistance (takes a little effort to move them, not anything you will do with one finger) and no extra play.

The main culprit seems to be the upper ball joint. Once that thing is at 26 lbs it is tight. This is the same for both sides.

Anyone run into this before? I did search with no avail.

Thanks.

 

[mbrummal]

There is a "tension collet" in the knuckle for the lower ball joint. Is it installed/torqued properly(3.7 lb.ft.)?

Also, the RAVE manual says to tighten the top joint first, then tighten the bottom joint. The order could have an impact.

 

[LFODNH]

Thanks Mason,

I'll take a look at that. I did tighten them in the right order but never checked the collet.

Greg

 

[11b4v]

how did you get to old ones out?

 

[Hubacek]

Building a 2004 D2. Figured I'd do the ball joints while I was installing the front axels/suspension.

The ball joints being used are Moog on the bottom and Import Direct on the top. No particular reason for this combo, just what I could get my hands on immediately.

So... the torque listed is 81 ft.lbs. for the top and 100 ft.lbs. for the bottom. If I torque these things even 30 ft.lbs. the knuckle is seriously tight. You have to reef on this thing to get it to budge.

I gradually torqued them up to 60 lbs. and you would need a pry bar to move them. I gradually torqued them down in 10 lb increments and landed at 20 lbs before the knuckle moves like every other vehicle I've done. So here it sits, 20 lbs and smooth with reasonable resistance (takes a little effort to move them, not anything you will do with one finger) and no extra play.

The main culprit seems to be the upper ball joint. Once that thing is at 26 lbs it is tight. This is the same for both sides.



Anyone run into this before? I did search with no avail.

Thanks.

I know this post is old but FWIW to others searching this topic, I had this same problem. Instead of leaving the nuts torqued down to 20 or 30 ft/lb so that the knuckle would still have rotation, I ordered in a different, good/used steering knuckle and was able to torque the nuts to spec on it and still have that rotation. I had to think about this a lot as my truck was down for a week while I was sorting this out and came up with a couple of ideas or suggestions.
1) it has nothing to do with the tension collet.
2) the new replacement ball joint is not up to spec, I.E. Shaft length/ diameter which allows the bores or tapers of the original knuckle/spindle to come up too high on the ball joint when torqued up.
3) the bores/tapers of the original knuckle/spindle are worn and allow the knuckle/spindle to come up too high on the new ball joints when being torqued.
---I realized there was a problem with the fit of the tapered bores of the spindle knuckle on the new ball joint shafts not only because there was no movement but I could also see that the grease boot was binding and being twisted-up even when there was no real torque on the nuts and I was still able to rotate the assembly. Actually, the holding ring on the bottom of the grease boot attaching it to the shaft kept coming off while I rotated the assembly to watch the binding action. I decided that even if I hypothetically left it that was such as others did, the grease boot would eventually bind and tear, leading to premature failure.

The reason I came back to this is because I did the Internet search when I was working through this and not one, single thread ended up with a solution. Or it did, but the solution for all of those guys was to leave the ball joint nuts torqued down to 20-30-40 ft/lb when the spec calls for 80/100. That is just crazy. I was surprised that guys were just leaving it at that and not doing any trouble-shooting whatsoever. To conclude, the knuckle itself may need to be replaced when you go to torque your original up on a new set of upper & lower BJs and get no rotation out of the assembly.