Well, got the whole suspension apart, adn went out to Autozone to buy new ball joints and upper bushings. I get the ball joint out of the box and the bolts that come with it are huge, I have to drill out the holes in my control arms, is this normal? I have done balljoints before, but don't ever remember having to do that. Plus the nots are the plastic insert locking kind, and they look like the won't turn once the assembly is together (they'll hit the grease cap retainer. ou: Who makes the best stuff that you don't have to drill out the holes on the control arms? Anyone have any pics of new stuff on their cars? Thanks
Unless you buy the whole control arm assembly that is how it is done insofar as I know. Even the repro whole assembly new does not have the ball joints riveted like they came from the factory. I think Moog makes great stuff. PST stuff looks rather weak beside it.
Jim is right Moog is the best. they apparently were the OEM supplier for most front end stuff. very high quality and made in the USA. I just rebuilt my entire front end with their stuff and I do not think I had to drill out the ball joint holes as the bolts fit right in after the rivets from the originals were removed. I would not use Auto Zone stuff as it might be Chinese Metal and I would not trust my life to that junk. you will pay more for Moog but you will have greater piece of mind.
i used the products from pst. all i had to do was drill/grind out the rivets and install the new ball joint withe the enclosed bolts. u may have been sold the wrong parts.
I just did mine on my 64. I did have to knock the head off the rivits, but did not have to drill the holes to make em larger. The nuts should go on top of the control arm, so they should turn fine. There is very little clearnce for the bolts to turn though.
Moog and TRW merged into one company so they are the same products. I buy all my suspension parts from Autozone and never had a problem. TRW/Moog makes a product line called Autodrive and it works well. Most of the time when you remove the rivets, you have to run a drill through the hole to clean them up. When you insert the bolts, the nuts will not rotate because they will contact the grease boot retainer.
not a problem having to enlarge the holes in the control arm slightly is ok, we have had to do that on occasion here in my repair shop. The thing you do NOT want is for the bolts to be too SMALL and be able to wiggle around in the control arm hole. We have run into that issue with Autodrive and treadsaver, so we use our own hardened bolts that fit tightly. The reason sometimes the bolts are slightly larger is that a solid rivet is stronger that a threaded bolt. The rivet size has been calculated for a certain strength. In order to achieve the same strength with a bolt, it must be larger, hence the drill! Also, depending on the rivet removal procedure, the hole may become enlarged slightly, eliminating the need to drill.
