Upper ball joints

-
gliderider06

gliderider06

FABO Gold Member
FABO Gold Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2011
Messages
2,481
Reaction score
1,706
Location
Delaware
So I bought new project car. 69 Dart. It has a 360 W/spool mounts and disc brakes up front, which makes me think it is from a 73 and newer donor car. It has been sitting for 20+ years, as I was told, and the gas smells like it.
Anyway, the front end needs rebuilding. How can I tell what style suspension I have on the car. With the upper ball joints on the disc brake spindles, do I need large or small joints? I cant tell other than they are trashed.
With the idler and pitman they come from the underside and bolt to the top. My 68, was the other way. I need to order suspension parts, just unsure how to order them.
Thanks!
 
Assuming factory parts were used. Look at your calipers. One piston would be big bolt pattern with the big ball joint and four pistons with a cross over line would be small bolt pattern with the small ball joint.
 
I was wrong! The idler and pitman go through the top and bolt to the bottom of the center link. The car was changed to large bolt pattern wheels and it has a single piston caliper on the rotors. The rear was also changed to an 8-1/4 with 4.5" bolt pattern. Its hard to tell, but the K frame almost looks as if the mounts were welded to the original frame to accept the spool motor mounts.
Where to begin with this project...
 
OK, look, the center link / pitman / idler and steering box must all "match." These parts have NOTHING to do with any of the rest of the front end, except 67 which is a one year only idler arm

In other words you could have ANY year K member, (except maybe 67) you could have drum or disc brakes, spool or biscuit mounts, does not matter.

That is, you cannot put the later center link "matching group" on a 67 unless you mod the idler bracket on the K member to take a later idler arm.

The above mentioned parts must all go together, and are determined primarily by the steering box BEING USED that is to say, large or small spline pitman shaft.

The LCAs so far as I know only matter based on "if" they have and what type of tabs for the sway, that is the early sway bar goes under the K, and the later one goes THROUGH the K member. The tabs on the LCAs for the early K are on on the high edge of the LCA, the tabs for the later bar are on the lower edge of the K

My own car is a good example of mix/ match..........

67 Dart

73/4 K member, late sway, late LCAs

but earlier small pitman shaft box, and 68 style idler, pitman, and center link.

Some "stuff:"

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=236925

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=248979

Search around, "Oldmanmopar" posted some excellent photos of K members and other suspension pieces some time ago
 
Thanks! It appears that I have a 73 up center link, Idler and pitman on the car. My question is will any size upper ball joint work with the disc brakes, or do I need later upper control arms from a disc brake car?
Thanks again this has been tremendousely helpful!
 
gliderider06 said:
Thanks! It appears that I have a 73 up center link, Idler and pitman on the car. My question is will any size upper ball joint work with the disc brakes, or do I need later upper control arms from a disc brake car?
Thanks again this has been tremendousely helpful!
Click to expand...

See post #2. It tells you a simple way to tell what ball joints/upper control arms are on the car.
 
Todays aftermarket mess of adapt parts allows large ball spindles to be placed on small ball joints. If this was a newer put together you would need to look for odd bushing or take a ball joint measurement to the parts counter.
Because it has been together for several years, you can bet the farm you have the large ball joints. If you're not a gambler... take a ball joint measurement to the parts counter.
 
RedFish said:
Todays aftermarket mess of adapt parts allows large ball spindles to be placed on small ball joints. If this was a newer put together you would need to look for odd bushing or take a ball joint measurement to the parts counter.
Because it has been together for several years, you can bet the farm you have the large ball joints. If you're not a gambler... take a ball joint measurement to the parts counter.
Click to expand...

I couldn't go out on that limb because he has never posted what brakes he has or given us some pictures to view. It is possible everything was changed and he has bbp disc brakes but it is possible that just the K frame was changed because the car was a /6 so it could still have sbp disc brakes.

I would hate for him to order parts on line that were not correct, have his car tore down, have to ship the wrong parts back and pay shipping for more parts again.

Identification of all the parts that he has is key here when it comes to getting the correct parts.
 
That's why I sais "parts counter". But anyway...
 
Those are single piston calipers. Unless there are bushings in the upper ball joint tapers they will be the big ball joints. Since you say this conversion is over 20+ years old the adapter bushings were not made that far back they would have to be big ball joints.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top