jatoxico

Have a couple questions:

1. The shaft on old lowers spin and move freely side to side, are they supposed to? Move up and down too which I know is bad.
2. The shaft of the new Spicer lowers is clearly a few degrees off of being perfectly perpendicular to its mounting. Is there an orientation for install or can the shaft be moved a bit if need be if its not in plane to receive the knuckle?

Got the knuckles off tonight. This Harbor Freight puller worked really well. Tightened it down and gave a couple sharp raps (no pounding), tightened some more and a couple more sharp shots and they popped free. No drama, no beating, very controlled.


Now its time to get the press and get the old joints out and start putting the new stuff on.

dcollins3208

Basically the shafts should hardly move at all, and certainly shouldn't be spinning freely, by hand (when pressed in). As far as shaft/knuckle alignment, you can move the shafts once pressed in but it'll take a bit of force. I lined mine up best I could before I pressed them in and only had to make very slight adjustments when re-installing the knuckle

md21722

Ball joints are made to swivel. Up and down movement in the stud means there is something wrong with the joint. When they are brand new you usually need to put pliers or a wrench on them to make them swivel so you can re-install the knuckle. They should also turn rotationally. This is what allows steering to occur. Often a few blows in the right place (on the rounds) means no tool is necessary to knock the tapered joints loose.

jatoxico

Thanks for the replies. First time doing them so not sure what normal is. Both new lowers seem to have the identical offset in the shaft relative to the housing and the shaft didn't move by hand (although I didn't try very hard). Good to know it's just stiff and the shaft can be tapped into place.They are clunking up and down and even I know that's not right. Seems the drivers side is worse as was the hub on that side.

In reading up on this project a number of folks here and elsewhere described difficulty, sometimes major difficultly, getting the knuckles off. I had to do a fair amount of hammering to get the hubs off so I was pleased the HF separator worked so well.

dcollins3208

BFH does the trick on those knuckles

DFlintstone

There is a trick for the hubs. You can fit a long 3/8 extension, IIRC in the rear hole and brace the other end, then, engine running, use the power steering to force the hub free. I bent my extension a bit doing it alone, but I think with a helper to hold it straight it wouldn't have bent it.

My photos seem to just wander around at night...why this one is here alone is beyond me. Anyway you can see the mark on the knuckle where it was purchased,