76 Camaro Balljoint Q

my bud and his dad were helping me work on the racecar (76 Camaro dirt track car) yesterday - I snapped the lower balljoint pretty much in half... and I decided to change both so it'll hopefully survive the next race in one piece.

anyway, they had a heck of a time getting the spindle back on and seated all the way on the upper joint - I think it's still loose, and I think they ended up buggering up the joint because now the whole "stud" of the joint spins when you try to tighten it up. The gap looks awful big as well.

I'm going to get another balljoint today incase they did bugger it up and I'm going to have another go at it tonight - any tips on reinstalling the top balljoint on a 76 Camaro? The car has probably 5 degrees of camber (oval track car...came that way) would that make it harder to line it back up? Upper first, then lower? Disconnect sway bar and tie rod? (I'll be putting a chain through the spring before busting it loose - I'm too young to die...)

Ray

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ray
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"ray"

sounds like they may have gotten the wong part. if the part is right and the spindle is loose on the ball joint get a new spindle

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Reply to
S.S.I.N.

it's the right part - looks like all F-bods from 70-81 use the same upper ball joint. I picked up another balljoint tonight so I'm going to have another go at it tomorrow...

Reply to
Ray

The ball joint connects to the spindle with a tapered joint, and it's common for the taper in the spindle to be wallowed out. If it is, you can attempt to recut the tapered hole if it's not too bad, but the cost of a tapered reamer is likely to be more than a used spindle in good shape, so simply replacing the spindle would be the way to go if it is indeed wallowed out.

JazzMan

Reply to
JazzMan

I think that would give me the opposite problem of what we had. If the hole in the spindle was too big we'd have the nut tightened and it could move up and down on the shaft of the joint - what I saw was the shaft of the ball joint effectively "Jamming" leaving a HUGE gap in between the ball/dust cap end and the spindle. Almost like the hole in the spindle is too small and then they tried overtightening the sucker to pull the pieces together.

I picked up another joint yesterday and am going to go tear it apart shortly to see what's up...

Ray

Reply to
Ray

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