Offset ball joint part number?

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Cope

Fusing with fire
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I'm looking for the part number for the problem solver ball joints for a 73 dart.

I searched on summit and cant seem to find it.

Thanks for your help.
 
Moog problem solver upper arm bushings. Don't think there are offset ball joints.
 
They call a few of their products "Problem Solvers"... I dont think that means they are all offset.
 
Dont they offer one that adjusts camber?

After the 73 disk swap my front runners sit like this / \

No amount of adjustments gets my camber inline?
 
To set the alignment angles, the car has to be at or near the factory ride height.
If the suspension is drooped, they will look like that because the UCA is shorter than the lower and pulls the UBJs in.If it were not so,the cycling of the suspension would drag the tire sideways constantly and wear out your tires pronto.
If the car is at proper ride height but the toe is not yet set, this will also change the camber; the wheel/tire has to be pointing dead-ahead. There is a small window of about 1 inch of suspension travel, centered around the factory ride height where the angles can be set, after which it becomes increasingly difficult.
Have you checked your LCA bushings? The pins are supposed to be in the center of the bushings
>I have not heard of any offset-pin BJs. The Moog offset UCA bushings are good for about 3 to 5 degrees caster at zero camber. I have not used them to correct for camber, but Ima thinking they might correct maybe half that in camber-only.
AFAIK;when you swap to 73-up brakes, you are supposed to also swap to the 73 UCA. I've never done it with the early arms. I have heard say the upper arms are the same except for the size of the BJ and it's stud, but I've never measured them; so,are they really? IDK.
And/but, I have read here on FABO, that guys have done the swap like you, and it worked, so don't panic,yet,lol.
 
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AH HA!

dang it! That makes sense.

I did drop the nose a little when I redid the front end.

How do we determine factory ride height?

I was confusing the bushings with ball joints sounds like.

I do have the 73 UCA.

Frickin Face palm! Thank you!
 
Look it up in the factory service manual. U can roughly measure ride height from the floor to the bottom of the control arm, off hand I don’t recall what it is supposed to be. Or u can measure from the floor to the wheel lip of the fender. I try to have the passenger side a little higher to compensate for the crown of the road. U can try rotating the caster/camber bolts like this. Rear so the rear of the control arm is all the way in. Front so the front of the control arm is all the way out. See what u got, then adjust from there. A level will get u close. Then adjust toe. Straighten the steering wheel. Then adj so the tires look straight. Take a tape measure, a helper is nice to have here, measure from the Center of the tread at the rear of the tires. Mark the Center where u measured from. Roll the car ahead till the marks are at the front and remeasure. Ur looking for an 1/8 inch toe in. Measure and re measure till u get ur numbers. Make sure u have retightened everything up. Test drive. Now u can take it for a wheel alignment. Kim
 
Out of my 69FSM, I read;
1.375 standard suspension
2.125 HD suspension
IIRC 73s were higher, and 2.375 rings a a bell, but it's been about a dozen years since I quit doing alignments.
A) measure distance from the lowest point of the adjusting blade to the floor, and B) from the lowest point of the steering knuckle arm also to the floor. Subtract B from A, with the result a positive number and at the spec. If you change the height, you need to roll the car back and forth about a total of 7 ft to unload the tires (3.5 each way), Because height changes alter the track width.Steering knuckle arm is Mopar-ese for LBJ
The purpose of the spec is to bring the suspension arms into a position where the caster/camber adjusting window is. When you get outside the window, the alignment tech cannot get decent caster. But worse is the toe-change that occurs as the suspension cycles up and down, which causes the car to wander from side to side. The window is about 1 inch , so plus/minus .5 from the spec.
If you change the ride height after any alignment, you will upset the camber and more specifically the toe; so, back to the shop you go.
On my 68 Barracuda, with 235/60-14 tires, I have found a good street height is 5.75 to 6.0 inches from the lowest point on the K-member to the floor. Try not to compensate for one saggy rear spring, by T-bar preload. I myself install my weight onto the driver's seat, prior to any adjusting. For a city car, I set both sides the same.
 
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I have an alignment gauge, tomorrow I'll give it another go.

Last time I did it I never set the ride height. The car tracks and drives good it's just gonna wear out my new tires.

Thanks guys!
 
Just got home.

I used a floor jack under the crossmember with the camber caster gauge on. Lifted the car until it read 0 camber and set the T bars there. Then adjusted the cam bolts for caster. Ended up at 1.5 degrees caster.
Right where I wanted to be!

Car pulls a hair to the right for some reason.
Gonna have to recheck toe when my helper get back from vacation and maybe fine tune the T bars a hair.

Thanks for setting me straight!
(Literally!)

:rofl::steering:
 
If your weight was not in the drivers seat, then when you do sit in it, your weight will create a cross-camber difference ; one side plus and other side minus. This change will also tug on the cross-caster. But more importantly, any time the camber changes, then the toe also changes. So if you are more often than not, the sole occupant, then I recommend that you install your bodyweight into the driver's seat. Try it and see. It doesn't take much cross-camber to create a pull.
I chased this around for quite a while until I installed the weight. This is also why,IMO, the 1.03 bars work so well. It seemed to me that they keep the alignment angles in the window better.
 
The best alignment guy I ever had died in a plane crash... He would drive the car before and after alignment. As well as weighting the driver seat to simulate the driver.
 
When I first started doing alignments, I recall this small FWD car that came in and I aligned it per the specs. Took it for a spin, Hyup feels good. So I moved on. Some days later, it's back. I take it for a spin and it feels good, but I dutifully put it on the rack and it's right where I put it. So I report that and carry on. Some days later, it's back again.
Ok hang on says I, I want to meet the owner. Well, I wanna be nice but, the driver is like 400 pounds, and his petite wife about 250. ........................
I said to my boss; give him his money back and tell him to go buy a truck.
I swear the under carriage was almost dragging when he got in it, and when his wife got in, I don't know how the thing still moved. I think it was a K-car,lol. It was so funny to see the car with just him in it.
Then, it turns out, this couple are the parents of one of the service writers, and they've been all over town trying to get a decent alignment,lol,lol,lol. And my boss also the service writers boss, thinks so highly of me that he took the job on.
Well says I, we are gonna need to get this car off the bump-stops; get me the heaviest duty struts you can find and the superest-duty springs that will fit on them, I don't care what they are off. And that will be the best I can do. Oh and I'm gonna need ~700 pounds of sandbags.
It turns out that 400 pounds of sand didn't fit ON the seat,lol, so I took it out. The seat I mean. That was an all-day alignment.
But that car never came back after that, except for tires; (they burned off a set just about every year). And for a time, there was fresh donuts in the coffee-room, courtesy Mr and Mrs Oversize.
 
If I'm not mistaken, you can shim between the lower ball joint and spindle for more camber
 
Yes you can; but you better check your bump-steer and Akerman when yur done. It also messes with the scrub radius. All of this can be overcome, it just costs money if you have to pay somebody.
 
Yes you can; but you better check your bump-steer and Akerman when yur done. It also messes with the scrub radius. All of this can be overcome, it just costs money if you have to pay somebody.

And this my friends is why people look into aftermarket front ends.
I would like to see pics and working theory and "how to" of the s/s A HOTROD front end set ups . Ever notice how straight and true they seem to track, even in the air ?
 
Money is no issue apparently cuz I've destroyed two sets of brand new front drag skinnys in short order trying to align this thing....

Save a nicke spend a dime.

In all fairness to me tho. No one around here wants to align a 40+ year old car so I'll just keep after it till I get it right....
 
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