Ball Joint Spacer Question

[PaulProe]

I am putting together a Hurricane kit which uses a Mustang II spindle. The balljoints are the screw-in Chrysler type.

When making up the joints, they are tightened to 100 ft/lbs which sucks the tapered shaft into the spindle. A 1/4" tall spacer is used under the nut, I assume to position the nut in relation to the cotter hole.

On the right side, by the time I got the joint to 100 ft/lbs, the nut and spacer has long since moved past the cotter hole. To make the nut and cotter engage, I will have to add an additional 1/4" spacer.

That means the right lower ball joint is 1/4" different position in the geometry than the left one.

Will this be an issue? Or is that just what you get when puttting together tapered joints?

thanks

Paul

[tcrist]

I had the same issue with my CR. I made some tapered shims of .005 thick stainless steel to wrap around the tapered area of the ball joint. I can mail a few to you if you would like. They would be in the flat and you could tap them around into a cone and slide them over the ball joint shaft. PM me with your address if you would like me to send some to you.

Terry

[strictlypersonl]

This situation might change your bump-steer. Something is wrong here.

[Dwight]

I had to do the same thing with my Lone Star. Mopar ball joints. 20,000 miles and no problem. I don't think it changes the bump-steer.

[nevermind65]

Pretty common problem if you were to see how many of these spindles were made. They probably machined the taper a bit too deep, which doesn't take much to pull the balljoint down 1/4".

Here is a good site to get a better comparison of how bumpsteer works. 1/4" won't make a difference.

http://www.heidts.com/heisinfo.htm

[strictlypersonl]

According to my calculations, a 1/4" "problem" will result in approximately 1/8" toe change at 2" wheel travel. You might not notice it, but it falls outside my level of quality tolerance.

[J Persons]

If the ball joint is higher on one side than the other, it will cause the roll center to be different side to side, and the camber gain will also be different side to side. The ball joints need to be at the same height in relation to the spindle to avoid handling issues. John

[PaulProe]

The supplier of the spindles has agreed to replace BOTH sides, saying they prefer to do them as sets. They have better luck getting each side to match.

Problem resolved. I suspect the one spindle had a chip on a locating pad when they machined the tapers as the top hole was off a slight amount also.

thanks for everyones input

Paul