Re Indexed and now???

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Gottagetone

Gottagetone

10 Year
Joined
May 27, 2011
Threads
61
Messages
1,020
Location
Austin, Texas
I installed my ARB Sahara bumper w/ winch and it dropped the front of the LC down a good bit. The torsion bars were already pretty maxed out so, thanks to Gunnys instructions, I re-indexed the bars which was a pretty straight forward process. After re-indexing I noticed that the ride was a bit stiffer up front which I like. My wife noticed a vibration coming from right under her feet so I checked everything and all was tight including the heat shield.

Yesterday I heard some noise coming from the right front and I thought it was the bearings going bad. I jacked up the truck and have a small amount of movement in the wheel at 6 & 12 but none at 3 & 9. I have searched and it looks like this is pointing towards a bad ball joint on the UCA. Can anyone confirm my suspicions? My thought is that the tighter ride is transferring the vibration where I could not feel it before with the softer ride.

Either way I am coming up on a brake job and bearing repack so that will be done soon enough, maybe sooner rather than later.
 
The play would be most commonly coming from upper an/or lower ball joints. Have a buddy shove the suspended wheel back and forth, as you did, while you watch the ball joint area of both control arms.

Or if they're really worn you might be able to see play when doing the same with the wheel removed by grabbing/pulling the top portion of the steering knuckle (upper ball joint). Another potential indicator would be torn ball joint boots; easy inspection.

Unless you changed to a different torsion bar your spring rate is unaffected regardless of position.

The ride quality difference may be from having the front raised too high; check your droop to be sure...
 
Jump onto youtube to see what a loose ball joint looks like, we can explain it to you for hours but a video will show you in seconds.

Another indicator of a bad ball joint is nocking when you go over a bump.

What kind of vibration? when dose it appear and go away? is it fixed to revs or speed? It could be a whole number of things but if its under the passengers feet Id look closely at the prop shaft, even slightly unballanced it can cause vibration.

Check your mounts, I know it sounds stupid but loose body mounts and diff mounts have cuased a number of nocks and vibrations on several hundies. even if its not that kind of vibration... check them it dose no harm.
 
Thanks for the responses, ill inspect the joints closer and take a look at you tube. I have just over 2" of droop on each side so I dont think thats the problem. I checked the drive shaft and it all looks good, no play in the u joints and I know I cant visualize balance. The vibration is only felt on the passenger side and happens at all speeds somewhat intermittently sort of like a wheel when its out of balance. While I was under there yesterday I did notice that the lower ball joint had some grease around it. Can you change just the lower ball joint or do you have to replace the whole lower arm?
 
I just pulled up the parts diagram and it looks like the lower joint can be pressed out and a new one pressed in but is it worth doing or should the whole thing be replaced if its needed?
 
https://forum.ih8mud.com/100-series-cruisers/224736-lower-ball-joints.html

FWIW you might be able to save the lower ball joint by re-booting. You can get the boot kits for less than $10 from Onur/beno. I did the same for mine and even though at first appearance, from the rusty goo that surrounded the ball joint itself, it looked like toast I was able to get it cleaned up, regreased and it was fine.

OTOH you can just replace the lower ball joint; see above thread link. As long as your lower arm doesn't show any damage/cracking (this has been an issue in AU...not aware of anyone experiencing the same issue in NA) just replace the ball joint and save yourself some coin. The inner lower control arm bushings are so stout I don't think anyone has actually needed to replace them because of wear/play.
 
Do you have to completely remove the lower arm to do a reboot or to replace the joint? Thanks for the thread link.
 
You don't have to remove the lower arm to reboot...but you, of course, need to separate the lower knuckle from the lower arm's ball joint to do that job.

Unless you have access to a portable type ball joint press you'll have to remove the lower arm to get it to a full size press for removing/installing the ball joint.
 
Thanks for the info, hopefully its just a reboot on the bottom. Right now I am looking at $685 for two UCAs delivered or $700+ for aftermarkets, kind of a no brainer.

Scratch that, just got a better price on aftermarkets than stockers.
 
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spressomon said:
Unless you have access to a portable type ball joint press you'll have to remove the lower arm to get it to a full size press for removing/installing the ball joint.
Click to expand...

Spresso, i respectfully disagree!

just did my lower ball joints this weekend in the garage. Hammered out the old once after removing the clip. Cleaned up the A-arm, measured the dia of the old BJ seating surface with my digital calipers and measured the dia of the new BJs and they were .1mm larger. So i sanded down the A-arm a little, and the BJ a little to reach the same effective interference fit.

Then, using the old castle nut installed at the end with the castles not on the impact end i took a good couple whacks and got them in place. I used a pry bar on the lip of the BJ at the top of the A-Arm to get them the rest of the way and it was sitting flush and the C-clip installed easily.

This was all while on the car.
 
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So how do you remove and install the c-clip?
 
ENGINE er said:
Spresso, i respectfully disagree!

just did my lower ball joints this weekend in the garage. Hammered out the old once after removing the clip. Cleaned up the A-arm, measured the dia of the old BJ seating surface with my digital calipers and measured the dia of the new BJs and they were .1mm larger. So i sanded down the A-arm a little, and the BJ a little to reach the same effective interference fit.

Then, using the old castle nut installed at the end with the castles not on the impact end i took a good couple whacks and got them in place. I used a pry bar on the lip of the BJ at the top of the A-Arm to get them the rest of the way and it was sitting flush and the C-clip installed easily.

This was all while on the car.
Click to expand...

That is good to know.

Rebooting the lower joint is a :banana:job. The hardest part is separating the ball joint from the knuckle. Other than that, you just need to be extra cautious not to stretch out the wire retainer that seals the boot when installing the new one.
 
ENGINE er said:
Spresso, i respectfully disagree!

just did my lower ball joints this weekend in the garage. Hammered out the old once after removing the clip. Cleaned up the A-arm, measured the dia of the old BJ seating surface with my digital calipers and measured the dia of the new BJs and they were .1mm larger. So i sanded down the A-arm a little, and the BJ a little to reach the same effective interference fit.

Then, using the old castle nut installed at the end with the castles not on the impact end i took a good couple whacks and got them in place. I used a pry bar on the lip of the BJ at the top of the A-Arm to get them the rest of the way and it was sitting flush and the C-clip installed easily.

This was all while on the car.
Click to expand...


Good to know...I stand corrected assuming your's wasn't an anomaly. :)
 
Does the c-clip hold the LBJ tight against the lower arm? I thought there was a gap so that the c-clip was more of a back up to the press fit?

I'm thinking that making it a loose or hammer fit may not be enough?

I guess we need some more feedback on the DIY LBJ jobs that have been done.
 
^^^ per the linked thread in my post above some needed a ball joint press and others the ball joint almost fell out once the circlip was removed. Personally if the ball joint was easy to remove I'd replace the entire arm...that's not a component you want to mess with if its not press fit tight.
 
the C-Clip is just a back up.

When i sanded the ball joint and A-Arm it was the MATCH the factory interference(read: press) fit of the factory ball joint. The new one was .1mm OVERSIZED to the one that i pulled out.

I did both sides with this method. Both times the last mm of fit was achieved with a pry bar on the lip of the C-Clip channel because i didn't want to hammer on it too many times.

edit: i agree with spresso, if the ball joint just falls out, new a-arm time. Mine took many big hits to get out.
 
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