Pirate Jacks front disc kit question

-
O

OhioJeremy

Active Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2021
Messages
44
Reaction score
8
Location
Ohio
In the middle of installing kit on 68 barracuda. My lower control arm was the tab for sway bar end link. When I bolted the lower ball joint/ steering arm onto new spindle, the nut from the bolt is hitting the sway bar tab interfering with steering radius. Any help?
 
Here's pics.....hopefully.

20231212_215219.jpg


20231212_215226.jpg


20231212_215239.jpg
 
Turn the bolt around and nut on the outside instead of the inside? Will that give you enough room?
 
HemiSSDart said:
Turn the bolt around and nut on the outside instead of the inside? Will that give you enough room?
Click to expand...
That may cause the nut and bolt to contact the rotor. He needs a shorter bolt and thinner nut.
 
Is the spindle connected to the upper control arm? If you dont have it all hooked up you could be over extending the knuckle outside of the steering radius. Here is what my 74 factory sway bar/disc car looks like.

IMG_5123.jpeg
 
S'cuder said:
Your sway bar tabs on your later lower control arm are inverted and located on the other side of the strut rod attachment point. That clears the knuckle to ball joint bolts
Click to expand...
Are you saying the OP has a kit for a 73 up but is putting them on 72 down lower control arms (or the other way around)
 
Dana67Dart said:
Are you saying the OP has a kit for a 73 up but is putting them on 72 down lower control arms (or the other way around)
Click to expand...
I don't know what the kit is, but likely it's based on the '73-up OEM brakes. The OP's control arms are the '72 and earlier type with the sway bar tabs closer to the end. If he had the later control arms, sway bar and K-frame, there wouldn't be an interference issue with the bolt and nut. If you look at the earlier Kelsey-Hayes equipped cars with sway bars, you'll see shorter bolts and thinner nuts which clear the sway bar tab on the control arm.
 
So it looks like no sway bar for me. I would swap out to later lower ctrl arm but I hate to considering I just put new bushing in it. Pirate Jack doesn't say anything about interference in description. Guess I'll make it work
 
The pirate jack kit is just a 73+ Mopar disk set up. It’s all remanufactured Mopar parts.

The 73+ disks will fit a 67-72 car, and they should work with the 67-72 sway bar as well as long as the calipers are put the the back instead of the front. You shouldn’t have to abandon the factory sway bar for that kit to work.

It’s difficult to tell from the picture, but the welds on the LCA at the sway bar tab do not appear factory. So it could be that the tabs were added and aren’t in the same spot as the factory tabs. Or maybe the tab on that side was damaged and repaired at some point.

To the OP, is there interference on both sides? Or just one? Can you post a picture of just the sway bar tab and the weld?
 
question: have you run the steering lock to lock without the bolt installed? i mean, maybe it's only touching on the last 1/4" of travel and that would just act as like a steering stop. also, how often are you full lock? just saying.

i'd try reversing the bolts, but it's pretty unlikely that the nut will clear the rotor.
 
72bluNblu said:
The pirate jack kit is just a 73+ Mopar disk set up. It’s all remanufactured Mopar parts.

The 73+ disks will fit a 67-72 car, and they should work with the 67-72 sway bar as well as long as the calipers are put the the back instead of the front. You shouldn’t have to abandon the factory sway bar for that kit to work.

It’s difficult to tell from the picture, but the welds on the LCA at the sway bar tab do not appear factory. So it could be that the tabs were added and aren’t in the same spot as the factory tabs. Or maybe the tab on that side was damaged and repaired at some point.

To the OP, is there interference on both sides? Or just one? Can you post a picture of just the sway bar tab and the weld?
Click to expand...
Here's the other side with drum brake spindle still attached.

20231213_122459.jpg
 
Hmm. The angle on the bracket on the side that hits doesn't look right, it appears to angle forward toward the ball joint. Hard to say for sure from the pictures though.

This is what the LCA tabs should look like, it looks like your sway bar tabs are factory tabs, but their mounting looks off to me...

65-72 A Body LCA's 001 (Copy).JPG


65-72 A Body LCA's 004 (Copy).JPG


65-72 A Body LCA's 002 (Copy) copy.JPG
 
Here's the right side of my Kelsey-Hayes disc brake '68 Barracuda. The wheel is turned all the way to the right so I could take the picture without moving the car and jacking it. Because of this, the sway bar tab is furthest away from the bolt. But you can clearly see the bolt goes from the back in, and is rounded on the edges. It looks to be very similar to your drum brake bolt head. I'm pretty sure the knuckle is tapped so there's no nut to interfere with the rotor.

IMG_20231213_135206051.jpg
 
S'cuder said:
Here's the right side of my Kelsey-Hayes disc brake '68 Barracuda. The wheel is turned all the way to the right so I could take the picture without moving the car and jacking it. Because of this, the sway bar tab is furthest away from the bolt. But you can clearly see the bolt goes from the back in, and is rounded on the edges. It looks to be very similar to your drum brake bolt head. I'm pretty sure the knuckle is tapped so there's no nut to interfere with the rotor.

View attachment 1716178074
Click to expand...
I thought about tapping it like that but if I ever have to replace the ball joint I'll have to drill out the hole for the larger bolt.
 
OhioJeremy said:
I thought about tapping it like that but if I ever have to replace the ball joint I'll have to drill out the hole for the larger bolt
Click to expand...
How old are you now.

Will a new ball joint out live you?

Just saying!
 
If you are in your 20s or 30s and it's a daily driver I might agree with you.

If it's a weekend car show car then I doubt it.

Or buy 2 sets and machine all 4 and keep the spare set for the 25 to 50 years from now (1000 miles per year is only 50,000 miles in 50 years)
 
If I were going to tap the spindles, I'd find some old stock Moog or TRW ball joints and use those. I'd do that anyway rather than use the likely Chinese ball joints included in the kit. Grease them every oil change with a quality EP grease, and they'll last.

I've purchased from these folks before. If you click on the "Add to Watchlist" button, they'll probably send you a discount code. As you can see, these ball joints are beefy. Just my $.02.

www.ebay.com

TRW 10179 FRONT RIGHT LOWER Suspension Ball Joint | eBay

TRW part number 10179. FRONT LOWER RIGHT PASSENGERS SIDE. OUR CHOICE. All our parts are (NEW OTHER) unless otherwise specified. Be sure the part you are buying is correct for your application.
www.ebay.com

www.ebay.com

TRW 10180 Front Left Lower Ball Joint | eBay

TRW part number 10180. Front Left Lower. They may have been in storage anywhere from 1-30 years. Rubber parts, gaskets, hardware may need to be replaced and may not be useable. There may be minor corrosion, scuffs, torn or missing boxes, scratches from storage, etc., none of which makes the part...
www.ebay.com
 
I mean, if you guys really wanna do something that shouldn't be necessary for the swap rather than figure out the actual problem, sure, tap the ball joints.

But again, that shouldn't be something you need to do. It looks to me like the sway bar tabs themselves are the issue, whether they were added or need repair, something appears to be "off" with their placement.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top