Ball joint not seating evenly

Yah they eye is clean as a whistle. Ill have to try the freezer trick and report back

 

I had the same problem when I did mine. I cleaned them really good with sand paper and greased the socket. Used a press and I wedged a screw driver in the lower side to keep the press "cup" from twisting. I also had the but develop on the ball joint. I cleaned it with a file and pressed it right in with the screw driver wedge. Good luck!

 

did you know all condoms have a serial number?

 

No reply implies you didn't know and that's because you have to roll them out all the way to see the numbers.

 

Perhaps Magnum XL's don't have the serial #?

 

Any luck OP?
What press are you using? May have some morsels of info that I gained from doing mine that I could share, if you'd like.

 

batch number at a minimum

 

Sure, ill take any info you got.

I was sick of it so i took a couple days off. I filed down the burr today and also filed a tiny bit off of the whole thickness of the BJ. I stuck them in the freezer and will do it tomorrow. I wonder if heating the collar of the control arm may help, too.

I'm using a standard BJ press that i rented from AutoZone

 

Know what you mean. When I was rebuilding my LCAs, I took about a week. Some things just frustrated me and I had to walk away.

I did one joint room temp and one frozen. The frozen one was much easier.
I did heat up the eye on the second one also. Used a heat gun to do it. Nothing too hot (like getting bushings out).
Try using a little lube on the screw of the press. Will cut the friction a bit. On the homemade bushing press (which were much harder to get in), I put a thin coating of vaseline type gel.
I noticed that the prep work made all of the difference. Sounds like you have the eyes pretty well cleaned out. Maybe a thin coat of anti-seize would help. I did that on the bushings, but not on the BJs.

Good luck. You'll get this.

When you hit the wall, bring it in to a shop. There are lots of guys out there that wouldn't mind a little extra cash for an "easy for them" job.

 

Is it safe to use grease or anti sieze in a metal to metal contact that isn't supposed to move?

 

Lol I like your thinking but no. If you can get your hands on some dry ice I’d use that too. You couldn’t make these brittle enough to hurt them. Ever.

Also, that green mark is meant to go towards the engine. Facing in. I am not sure why but I am assuming it has something to do with the angle they will always be sitting at due to LCA angle.

I used anti seize and a touch of 10w30. Around the first point of contact on the BJ. Do as you want, this isn’t a “standard” practice so I won’t comment either way.

Also very important that you thoroughly lubricate the threads on the C clamp press. Don’t forget!

 

Thanks for all the input. I ended up saying f*#k it and brought them to a shop to have installed. The guy had to really ram on them for a while with a pneumatic gun to get them to seat and that's after having frozen them.
However, he put them in in the wrong orientation with the "this side in" facing out so i have to bring them back. Why are they directional anyway? Can't a round ball be oriented in any position?

 

One of the BJs had the mark and the rubber boot in the correct place. The other one, the green mark and the boot were off. I went with where the boot told me to place it.

 

The answer to your question is yes. They’re probably not spherically symmetrical though. I can’t confirm that but just a guess.

 

Most ball joints have an inside and out side. It's because the channel where the shaft travels... hahaha is formed to allow movement and articulation in the proper direction... hahaha. When it's not oriented properly you will get binding and premature wear (chaffing).... hahaha. But seriously that's how it works

 

I wonder if i can just spin the shaft within the boot and put it into proper alignment

 

worked on my GF

 

Well damn

 

boot of the car was a bit cramped but we did make a stain