small ball joint or big?

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ThogtheCaveman

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Ok so I want to put disk brakes on all four wheels of my '69 dart. So my question is, should i get the regular small ball joint brakes, or should i upgrade and get the '73 and up spindle for larger ball joint? I know it is probably stronger but it is also costlier!! I am planning for this car to be a street rod with either a 383 or 360 with probably no more then 500 hp, so do i really need the bigger ball joints?
 
IMO this is one area where bigger is definitely better. Spend the extra bucks now and you'll be done with it and can forget about that area and focus on something else.
 
You need to decide on what disk brakes you are going to use before you worry about which ball joint to buy. per 73 factory disk brakes will force you to stay with the small ball joint, the 73+ will force you to go with the big and aftermarket brakes can be had for either.

The 73+ ball joint is bigger and stonger and is also cheaper than the earlier A-body joint but it also requires different spindles and upper control arms.

There is no inherent weakness in the pre 73 A-body ball joint it was just an effort on the part of mopar to consolidate parts.
 
dgc333 said:
You need to decide on what disk brakes you are going to use before you worry about which ball joint to buy. per 73 factory disk brakes will force you to stay with the small ball joint, the 73+ will force you to go with the big and aftermarket brakes can be had for either.

The 73+ ball joint is bigger and stonger and is also cheaper than the earlier A-body joint but it also requires different spindles and upper control arms.

There is no inherent weakness in the pre 73 A-body ball joint it was just an effort on the part of mopar to consolidate parts.
Click to expand...

While there may not be an inherent weakness in the smaller joints, I think dgc333 just made the case........ bigger, stronger, and cheaper. Sounds good to me.
 
Just remember the joint is about $20 cheaper but you will also need a new upper control arm and spindle to use it which if you are just replacing a worn ball joint makes it quite a bit more expensive.

FWIW, I swapped in 73+ disk brakes into my 68 Barracuda that had 9" drums. I have the big ball joint now along with the 73+ spool k-member and 73+ sway bar that mounts inboard of the strut rod. A dramatic overall up grade in the braking of the car.
 
My plan was to get the wilwood 73 and up disk conversion and to buy the adjustable tube arms and spindles (all from magnumforceracing.com) except they don't sell the spindles anymore :sad2: !! I called magnumforce and one of the guys said they are suppose to make the correct spindles really soon; that was a few months ago. I just bought a front suspension rebuild kit from just suspension, it comes with the new small ball joints (i haven't rebuilt it yet), so im still not really sure if i should just wait for them to make the spindles or try and obtain them some other way, and go with all the modification and get the bigger! Or just keep the small joints and get the pre 73 disk kits. Sorry for rambling on!!!
 
well, just so you know, i have yet to see anyone make a small bolt pattern rear disc setup. that right there says to either go with 2 sets of wheels or go with big bolt pattern.
 
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