I made a thread a year+ ago about the inner Cs on my TJ being wallowed out. The Jeep has been parked since and I'm starting up on a winter project to do a full refresh of everything. Anyway, I decided to try out Teraflex BJs. I ordered splined and was hoping I could get one more set out of the axle. I figured I'd try out the non splined while I was at it. I pressed in the non splined and they actually gripped. It took 130ft/lbs to seat. Is this enough? I've only done 1 lower so far since I believed it was the worst of the bunch.
Ball joint install question
- Thread starter Wayoftheturtle
- Start date
They definitely do both of those. I guess I'm just questioning if it's enough torque, even if there isn't an exact spec. Other solid axles I've done, including this one have needed an 18" breaker bar and maybe a cheater to get full seat. I've never torqued one before because I didn't need too, but I was curious with these
They should take what it takes to get them seated all the way. The castle nut torque spec is 55 plus what it takes to get it to the next opening for the cotter pin.
If you are talking the torque on the press, there is no accurate way to define that. I can smack the end of C where it is against the ball joint and drop that 130 until it is less than 1/3rd that until the body bottoms out on the C. At that point, you keep going until it stops moving. Give it a tap a few times and when it stops loosening up, its set.
If they felt loose going in, they probably are. If they didn't, they probably aren't.
So, just to be clear, since I got decent resistance I should be fine?
I only stated the 130ft/lbs as a metric to describe how much effort it took to place it. Hard to describe it over this media. I definitely needed a press and I definitely gave it some ass using an 18" torque wrench.
I gotcha now..I wasn't quite up to speed lol..I guess I've never paid attention to torque values when installing ball joints. I go until it puts up a shit ton of resistance and then stop.
OP I think you will be fine
Also, tap the C? I've never done that before. Bottom out, tap it, tighten some more? Sorry if it feels like it's holding my hand, I've just always tightened until bottomed out and moved on
Me neither..I have always ran the press down until a shit ton of resistance and call it good. But if Blaine does them this way then I have probably been doing it wrong.
My guess is it temporarily shocks the hole to a larger opening kind of like hitting the knuckle to release a tie rod.
Next time I do ball joints I'm going to try this
Tapping the yoke with a hammer as you press allows the ball joint to settle and removes bind. After learning to rebuild driveshafts with a hammer, I started applying the concept to ball joints years ago because it made sense to do it that way. The removal and install became much less of a fight, which I suspect helps preserve the bores.
The end of the C press where it is forcing the balljoint into the hole in the inner C. Smack it with a hammer while you are tightening the press. If they are slightly crooked going in, that will usually straighten them right out. If they are going in straight, that will greatly lessen the amount of force needed to seat them all the way. Tighten, load up the press, give it a little tap, repeat and it makes it far easier to install them.
After you do it that way once, you'll hate yourself for all the times you did it the hard way. You're just helping the press with some impact force the same way an impact wrench makes it easier to remove or tighten bolts.
More specifically, we tap the end of the press that is holding the adapter piece and drive it the same direction the ball joint needs to move.