Tire rubbing ball joint grease fitting, rim rubbing upper control arm

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csx452

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I bought a set of ralley wheels and tires from another member back in June. Some of you may have seen the thread of how hard it was trying to get the seller to send them to me. I'm still having trouble getting everything from him. That's irrelevant though. I test fitted the front tires and wheels and as the title says, the tire rubbs the grease fitting on the upper ball joint and the wheel lip rubs the upper control arm. I know my alignment is way off, and I'm having the front end rebuilt this week, but I'm curious to know if this could be an alignment problem or did I get screwed by the seller again? Did he sell me wheels with the wrong backspacing? I'd appreciate any input on this.
Thanks,
Frank
 
How much rubb are you getting? Maybe small spacer might fix? This should not happen with stock factoy rims. These OEM rims?
 
The car is a 68 Dart GT with drum brakes. Not sure of the size of the brakes. The wheels are 14x7 Ralleys. I can't measure the backspacing because the car is at the shop having the front end rebuilt. Here is a link to the for sale ad. They supposedly fit nice on the sellers 70 Swinger.
 
all this rubbing talking is making me think of this song [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPp-tneEHRE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPp-tneEHRE[/ame]
 
I have heard of your problem before, and personally ran across it once in the time i have been turning wrenches, professionally working on cars.
Let me ask you this.
What type of upper ball joint do you have in your upper control arms?
Believe it or not, there are different "styles" of ball joints between the manufactures.
If you have a ball joint thats "tall" in it's design, it can have the grease fitting rub on the inner diameter of the wheel.
I have enclosed a picture of two upper control arms, side by side.
One has a "normal" ball joint installed, and the other has a "taller" one.
Hope you can see the differences in the picture.
Might help you out with your problem. Good luck.
 
I actually have the normal one, not the tall one. The grease fitting is rubbing the tire about a quarter of an inch above the lip of the rim. The lip of the rim is actually rubbing against the edge of the upper control arm. I will try to get some pics tomorrow.
 
Sounds like the wrong offset on the wheels to me. How wide are the rims? They make wheel spacers too.

,Cliff
 
I'm hoping it's just too much negative camber in the alignment. Does anyone know what the backspace should be for a 14x7 wheel on a 68 Dart?
 
Mine are dead nuts centered on my '63. I have two finger widths on either side front or back and also measured the wheels. I have 15"x7" Craigers, so 3.5" from center to bead of rim.

,Cliff
 
I didn't get up the shop today to take any pics. I had a malfunction with old dental work and a hard pretzel. Tonight there is a new space in my mouth where a molar once was. I did call my buddy and have him try to measure the backspace though. He didn't have a straight edge the width of the rim so this is a guestimate. It's either 4.5" or 4.75". That would bring the tire and wheel closer to the control arm and ball joint. I did think about wheel spacers, but would rather not have to go that route. I will if I have to though.
 
hemi71x said:
I have heard of your problem before, and personally ran across it once in the time i have been turning wrenches, professionally working on cars.
Let me ask you this.
What type of upper ball joint do you have in your upper control arms?
Believe it or not, there are different "styles" of ball joints between the manufactures.
If you have a ball joint thats "tall" in it's design, it can have the grease fitting rub on the inner diameter of the wheel.
I have enclosed a picture of two upper control arms, side by side.
One has a "normal" ball joint installed, and the other has a "taller" one.
Hope you can see the differences in the picture.
Might help you out with your problem. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Ive been looking for the flat ball joints, what model and year would I look up? Or do you have a part number handy? Also is there any ball joints that don't have that proprietary fitting on the top? Are there sealed joints available? On my wheel it's the only thing hitting and I'm about 1 min away from grinding it off and welding the sucker together, but if I can buy my way out of it I'm all ears.
 
Back in the day I ran 14x7" Rocket brand wheels (similar to a Cragar 5 spoke) on the front of my car with 9" drums. The wheels had about 4 3/8" backspacing. They hit the outer edge of the upper control arms. I had to use spacers.
 
I'm pretty sure I'll have to use spacers also. Whatcha gonna do? Live and learn I guess.
 
Not that I'm recommending it, but my car went through hell with those spacers on it, including several Dukes style launches through the air. They never gave me a bit of trouble.
 
hemi71x said:
I have enclosed a picture of two upper control arms, side by side.
One has a "normal" ball joint installed, and the other has a "taller" one.
Hope you can see the differences in the picture.
Might help you out with your problem. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Looking @ your pics, the ball joint on the right is welded in and not threaded like the original ones.

To the OP, maybe remove the zert and plug the hole.
 
'64 Cuda said:
Not that I'm recommending it, but my car went through hell with those spacers on it, including several Dukes style launches through the air. They never gave me a bit of trouble.
Click to expand...

LOL!! Hopefully I won't be getting air with the car. Good to know you didn't have any problems though.
 
6pk2goDemon said:
Looking @ your pics, the ball joint on the right is welded in and not threaded like the original ones.

To the OP, maybe remove the zert and plug the hole.
Click to expand...

The front end rebuild is still on hold. Gotta wait for lift time at my buddies garage for that. Then I'll know for sure when the alignment is done. It would be nice if all I had to do was remove the zert. Time will tell.
 
Oklacarcollecto said:
I have some NOS spacers that actually go directly over the studs if they are SBP.
These are not adapters.
PM me if you are interested.
Click to expand...

Tried to PM you about the wheel spacers and your PM box is full. I'm still interested in them.
Thanks,
Frank
 
6pk2goDemon said:
Looking @ your pics, the ball joint on the right is welded in and not threaded like the original ones.

To the OP, maybe remove the zert and plug the hole.
Click to expand...


No, whoever installed the ball joints in these control arms before i got them, didn't use the proper upper ball joint socket to do the removal and re installation.
A big pipe wrench must have been used, and the outer edges of the "flats" on the ball joints themselves are pretty chewed up from the jaws of the pipe wrench.
Haven't been following the progress of this posting, until now, as i thought it ran it's course. Guess the original poster still has the problem, and probably needs wheel spacers.
 
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