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Ball Joints for a 93 YJ [longish]

HI, OK, I have a quick question about ball joints on a 93 YJ 4.0L. I have the front end torn apart, waiting on new brake pads/rotors and all new tie rods. Parts are all in, just time to install.

Anyway, while I'm cleaning things up and getting ready, I noticed the passanger side wheel knuckle turns alot easier than the drivers side. I mean, the drivers side requires at least twice the effort to turn. There is no play on either side and I've greased both sides until clean grease comes out of the sides of the seal (pushing the grease in real slow and steady...the seals are in good shape).

Question, does this sound like the ball joints on the driver side are hanging up, or is the increase in pressure from one side to the other normal? The U-joints in the wheels were replaced a few years ago and look in good shape (the old ones were dried completely out and clicking). There is no clicking and no play from what I can see.

Also, one last thing. The springs were re-arched and a leaf was installed to bring the front back up, the springs were totally flat before and there was less than 1" space between the axle and the bump stop. Now, there is about 2" or a little more. It threw the alignment out a little on the toe, but was still in spec for caster/camber. I have to get the front end checked after all the tie rods are back in place, so I'm going to get the exact measurements and will double-check against the factory manual.

Any suggestions would be apreciated.

Thanks

Tony

Reply to
Tony
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If you can't leverage the ball joints axially (up and down) then they are fine. Frankly this is a fairly stout component on open knuckle (post '71) Jeeps, because they only have to handle turning and not suspension movement as in an IFS design. Any internal tension is probably not worth worrying about.

Adding leaves to raise the suspension on a solid axle vehicle doesn't have any effect on toe or camber, and minimal effect on caster unless longer shackles are installed. You should only have to check toe if you've changed or moved the tie rod ends.

Reply to
Gerald G. McGeorge

Thanks for the reply, I wasn't sure if I should worry about it or not. And, since everything was off, I thought it would be a good time to replace them if I needed to.

Now, as far as the lift, I thought the same thing. I had it done almost 2 years ago. Up until the tires started cupping, I didn't think the toe should have changed either. It did though. The jeep had the original tie rods and they were really rusted (i.e. very hard for the shop to get broken free). They got it aligned but I didn't have a good feeling about it. Watching someone heat the rods then beat the crap out of them to get them to move helped make up my mind to replace everything up there the next time I needed work done.

The Jeep doesn't get much use compared to the old days when it was daily transportation, so when I needed to fix the brakes, the tie rods seemed like a good idea. The thought of pulling the axle to replace the ball joints however, was not really my idea of fun.

Thanks again,

Tony

Reply to
Tony

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