Uniball Fixed with Photos!

OK, to recap a previous thread:

I installed a set of Camburg UCA's with 1.25 uniballs. They were preowned, but looked to be in decent shape. After the install I got my truck aligned about 2 weeks ago, and when I picked it up I noticed it pulled to the left. I contacted the shop, but due to my schedule I can't take it back to them until this upcoming Monday. Today I noticed it was pulling to the left pretty hard, and I heard a very loud squeaking noise when I turned to the right to park. I thought it was the Uniball squeak I had heard about so I grabbed a can of dry lube spray and went to spray the uniball.

I found the right uniball was loose, where it bolts to the spindle. The top of the uniball was sticking up and had been damaged as it articulated. I borrowed some tools at a local bicycle shop (where I had pulled in to park), and tightened it back down. It was sticking up quite a bit, and is not depicted in the photos. However there was still a lip where the edge has been curled up.

Here are the pics:


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Problem is I am planning on a 3,500 mi road trip next week, so I don't think I could have obtained the rebuild parts and gotten them installed as I am working 12 hour shifts all week prior to my vacation.

So I decided to tear into them today. I got up at 02:30 hours so I could to to my part time job early, and get off early enough to do some work. I took the uniball apart and brought the top and bottom inside for some filing work.

My truck looks so sad:





Here are some more shots of how bad the lip is buggered up on the top half.







I started with a medium flat bastard file, and worked from the top half downward at about a 30 degree angle. I rotated the bearing anti-clockwise so I could see where I had removed the material.





Once I had the basic shape I wanted, I switched to a fine file repeating the same process.



The final step was to polish with a Dremel tool and some Brasso. This is the only polishing media I had, but it worked.





After I reinstalled the uniball, I re torqued it to 110 lb ft. Now you can see how much material I had to remove.


There is a gap on this side as compared to the other side which is almost smooth across the face of the two parts.



I don't think this will effect operation much, as long as there are no rough edges to get hung up in the Teflon cup. The bottom piece also needed some work, but not nearly as much as the top piece. I didn't photograph it as it would be redundant. All in all, I think it will work well. Hopefully I wind up $175 ahead by not needing a rebuild kit, but then again I hope I don't break down. Such is life. I guess the lesson learned here is don't trust anyone else to work on your vehicle. If you have to let them, double check their work. I am just glad that thing didn't decide to let go at 70 mph with my wife in the vehicle!

I hope this helps anyone who finds themselves in the same situation. If someone who has significant experience with these uniballs sees something that is going to endanger people's lives by using this fix, please let me know.

Cheers,
Bryan

 

nice job man!

 

Dude good job looks good. way to improvise.

 

They should make some sort of rubber dome to go on top of that to keep crap out of it, then pack it with grease to keep it lubed.

 

Probably part of what makes the icons so appealing.