Chevy 10 bolt upper ball stud adjusting sleeve (1 Viewer)

[John Smith]

This is my first time replacing the ball joints on my 84 K10 Suburban and I am running into an issue with the upper ball joint adjusting sleeve. When I removed the knuckle from the axle the old adjusting sleeve was pretty much centered in the upper C.

Following the FSM, I torqued the lower ball joint to 30ftlb, then torqued the adjusting sleeve to 50lb. This is where the new adjusting sleeve is, mostly below the C. This doesn't seem right to me. Is this normal?

 

[numby]

Good god NO!

My experience is mostly with GM D44 front ends but that's just not right. It looks like your knuckle is too small but that obviously can't be so I'd assume that your lower ball joint is seated wrong somehow. Is there a snap ring to secure it in position on the knuckle? Definitely look into the seated position of both the upper and lower ball joints. They should be seated up against the snap rings. HTH.

 

[John Smith]

For closure, if anyone finds this thread in the future. It turns out the Made in China ball joints were not manufactured to the proper spec. I bought some Made In USA Raybestos ball joints and they installed properly. I found some other threads online while searching this issue where people had the exact same issue I experienced. There must have been a run of ball joints at some factory in China that were not made to the proper spec and were resold under various labels.

 

[numby]

Those tiny little fingers must get awfully tired by the end of those 12 hour night shifts in the sweatshop. There's bound to be some loss of quality control now and again.

Thanks for posting the solution.