I had upper and lower ball joints installed on my 04.5 a couple of days ago. Went in for a wheel alignment and they could not do it because the lower ball joint was moving where it should be pressed into the axle. Do I need a new axle or can I shim this on the top or bottom where the ball joint meets the axle. What the alignment guy said might be worth a shot is to peen up the ball joint with a punch to make it a little rougher so when it is pressed in it might not move. Or does anyone make an oversized ball joint? I saw it with my own 2 eyes what he was describing.....

 

I dont think anyone makes larger ball joints. Its a long shot but you can try thurenfabrication.com He may have a solution to your problem.

 

were did you buy your ball joints from ? i no putting in some brands are easier then others , the dodge ones i find fit alot tighter then after pops

 

These were just napa ones........

 

I put napa ones in my truck a little while back, and had to take one back beacause of exactly the same problem. There was no friction fit , could actually push it in by hand, and it wobbled back and forth.

Get that bad one out soon as possible, there is a chance that it will oblong the hole so that even a proper fitting one won't work.

 

I think I'd try a differnt ball jiont. The dodge one or a moog would be my top choices for best interference fit. If a differnt ball jiont won't fit tighter, you can peen it. If you really get stuck tack a few very small tack welds in there and grind them down till you have a good interferance fit.

 

Thanks guys...... Those are some good ideas. I have to use my truck for this week for work so I might end up wrecking my axle/differential and oblonging the hole like northernwheeler said. I am thinking of a new truck, or getting a different front axle and carli upper and lower ball jointing it and dynatracking the front hubs and swapping axles and starting from scratch. But do I want to go through all that cost for a 6 year old work truck with 360,000kms?????

 

tack weld the BJs in place for now, be better than running with them loose. I'd say its not worth it if your getting rid of the truck. If you keep it for a backup truck it may be worth it

 

I bet you were looking at them moving when the truck was on the hoist and the wheels were off the ground so the weight of the wheel, brake. hub is wanting to unload the balljoint, pulling it down out of the spindle, sort of common on old 2 wheel drive chevys. When the truck is back on the ground, there is no way that BJ will move unless you get air born or you have serious other problems. If it was mine I would put a couple small tacks on them and call it a day. I have done this quite a few times. If you can move them when the wheels are on the ground you shouldn't be driving.