$10 Upper Ball Joint Socket - Really

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nm9stheham

nm9stheham

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So here it is Sat late Sat afternoon, one UCA is out, and the non-socket attempts to unsrcew the upper ball joints aren't working and NAPA is long closed. So I go to the usual Advance/O'reilly/Otterzone circuit to see what I can gin up for a 1-59/64" 4 wall socket substitute. Advance has a $180 deposit set that I can rent, so I kept looking and at Oreilly's, I run a across a 2-1/4" 4WD spindle socket that fits thr BJ flats amazingly well (their PN W1269). It has 4 small tangs to fit a spindle nut, so I was not sure how it might work, but, for $10, 'what the hey'..I could go back to Advance tomorrow AM..... and I don't care to save these BJ's.


SO, when I get in the garage, I figure I'll be lazy and try it with the impact wrench. Got it in place, held the socket with a rag to keep it stable, hit it with just a few impacts...."Hey did that move?" A few more impacts and for sure it is turning the ball joint out, no problemo. It was a piece of cake, working a short impact burst at a time, re-checking the socket's alignment each time, and the BJ was out in about a minute. The fact that the BJ and UCA had soaked in PB Blaster for an hour + did not hurt.


Next was to try to on the UCA and BJ still in the car. With a whole 1 minute of PB soak time, the result was the same: the BJ started turning out on the first impacts. In a bit over a minute of just short bursts on the impact wrench, it was out. This BJ was a tiny bit crooked coming out; I did not wipe all the grease away first to see if it had been installed crooked the last time. I know tomorrow when I clean the UCA up really good.


I expected the tangs of the tool to dig into the BJ more, but it did not. You can see in the pix below on the 2 BJ's; the marks on the right are from this tool and the ones on the left were from the prior installation. The tangs on the socket flattened just a bit and that made a flat contact patch on the BJ flange.


I like this socket because:
1) it takes a 1/2" drive, not the 3/4" that the standard socket takes and which many people do not have
2) it is tall and so you can hold your hand on it with a rag and keep it stable/seated with an impact wrench
3) it is $10!


This might not work so well with a breaker bar since it IS so tall and could be less stable than the normal very low socket for this app. The tangs could be ground recessed a bit so this would be more stable with a breaker bar.


Good luck if you try it! YMMV..... Sorry the photos aren't sharper.

View attachment DSCN1130.jpg

View attachment DSCN1133.jpg
 
I LOVE "outside the box" solutions.
 
I've never used a socket.

With the UCA's still in the car, and the boots pried off you'll see the body of the ball joint sticks through the bottom of the UCA about 1/2". I grab onto this with a good sized pipe wrench to break the ball joint free and then use a pair of channel locks to turn it from the top.

If the pipe wrench mars the ball joint body so much it wont thread out easy, knock the burrs off with a file.
 
The pipe wrench under the threads was one of the things I tried with a really good sized pipe wrench but no dice (that I normally use for joining rigid conduit sections); it is a cheap chinese pipe wrench with considerable side play and would not grab the narrow, rounded area on one of the wrench's edges.
 
That's Purdy cool. Keep in mind, the ball joints are self tapping threads. If those old ones were original, that might explain why one was a bit crooked. New control arms are not threaded, so when they got slapped in at the factory, it's a good possibility they were not perfect.
 
RustyRatRod said:
That's Purdy cool. Keep in mind, the ball joints are self tapping threads. If those old ones were original, that might explain why one was a bit crooked. New control arms are not threaded, so when they got slapped in at the factory, it's a good possibility they were not perfect.
Click to expand...
OK, tnx good to know. After cleaning, it looks like the one BJ's threads got crossed a bit when the orignals were replaced in 1991.
 
Nice!

The Mancini Upper Ball Joint Socket was do-able with a ratcheting 1/2" Breaker, but the F***** was $50 once shipped to my door and took an hour to get both Ball Joints out, even with PB helper. We're talking STUCK in those A-Arms after 40 years.
 
Your sure about self tapping RRR?

The ones I've done recently had very shallow, rounded crest threads, not sharp AT ALL.

Don't see any way they could possibly self tap.

Also, all the ones I've done are super easy to cross thread because of that odd, shallow thread design.

If it doesn't go in at least a full turn and then some by hand, start over.
 
YY1 said:
Your sure about self tapping RRR?

The ones I've done recently had very shallow, rounded crest threads, not sharp AT ALL.

Don't see any way they could possibly self tap.

Also, all the ones I've done are super easy to cross thread because of that odd, shallow thread design.

If it doesn't go in at least a full turn and then some by hand, start over.
Click to expand...

Yeah, what he said.
 
BTW, as a follow up, this socket worked very well for installation with a 1/2" rachet, breaker bar, and torque wrench. I just put both in yesterday and it was A-OK. The good thing about this tall socket was that it fits a guy's hand well, and I could thread the BJ's in for 2 or so threads by hand gripping this socket, and thus keep an eye on BJ thread alignment. The tall socket was not a stability issue, and even was a help as it was I could grip it with my non-wrench hand and stabilize the socket and also use it for upper body leverage.

The points of the tangs dug in a bit and left marks (very shallow, like .005" maybe?) and the only issue was that when the BJ was getting down towards bottoming out, the tangs would start to dig into the UCA upper BJ hole edge, but I would turn it 1/8 turn, then release and let the socket move up a hair, and it was a non-issue.

As for size, this is for the 1-59/64" 4 sided upper BJ's; these were used in the early B-bodies (my '62 Dart) but I don't know when they used those in the A-bodies. The larger, later ones that I am aware of are used in the P/U trucks.....
 
FYI... The socket that PST sells works on their replacement BJ
The original is larger
We don't have O'Reillys in Pittsburgh
I'll check AutoZone tomorrow
Any suggestions ?

:burnout:
 
YY1 said:
Your sure about self tapping RRR?

The ones I've done recently had very shallow, rounded crest threads, not sharp AT ALL.

Don't see any way they could possibly self tap.

Also, all the ones I've done are super easy to cross thread because of that odd, shallow thread design.

If it doesn't go in at least a full turn and then some by hand, start over.
Click to expand...

They are self tapping. The ball joints are hardened. It's more like thread forming There are no chips produced. The UCA will strech a little bit and those little threads will form into the UCA. Its a good way to do it cause now its a press fit on the threads. Even a little cross-threaded is ok cause its still all new threads. just my .02 worth Jim
 
YY1 said:
Your sure about self tapping RRR?

The ones I've done recently had very shallow, rounded crest threads, not sharp AT ALL.

Don't see any way they could possibly self tap.

Also, all the ones I've done are super easy to cross thread because of that odd, shallow thread design.

If it doesn't go in at least a full turn and then some by hand, start over.
Click to expand...

Positive. When you buy a new control arm, they are not threaded. I remember when they were still available from Chrysler new. They were not threaded from Chrysler either.
 
PST's new control arm looks like it comes preassembled at a price of $299
 
Dfr360cuda said:
FYI... The socket that PST sells works on their replacement BJ
The original is larger
We don't have O'Reillys in Pittsburgh
I'll check AutoZone tomorrow
Any suggestions ?

:burnout:
Click to expand...

This I didnt not know.. Looks like I may have to go pick up this socket... I would be pissed if I spent the money on the socket and it didnt fit the OEM BJ's.
 
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