So I bought a set of Spicer 706944X ball joints and the upper one just slides into it's hole on the axle. The lower one mostly slides in then needs knocked in the last bit.

Does anyone know of a good oversized replacement or anything that will sort out this issue?

I bought Spicer as I didn't want to do this job again after doing them 2 years ago.

Thanks

 

Look up "knurled ball joints". I think there are 2 or 3 companies that make them. Teraflex, Synergy.

Maybe MOOG Problem Solvers but they may not be available for your model...

 

I think I bought the same but haven't put them in yet. Still in a box somewhere.

You mean you'd like a bigger size?

 

I guess so, like a fraction larger diameter. The upper one could just be pushed straight in and wiggle around slightly.

The other issue I faced, which forced me to refit the old ones, was when the castle nuts were fully tightened down, I could grab the knuckle and move the whole lot up/down a few mm. Even if they fitted snugly, it wouldn't have fitted right on the knuckle leaving the bottom ball joint loose in the knuckle. The uppers I believe are telescopic ball joints which would have adjusted this out. Had the ball joints pressed properly into the axle, when tightened the ball joint would have taken up this movement. I'd never heard of telescopic ball joints before.

The ball joints I fitted 2 years ago fitted fine but I had to replace one last year and another went bad this year, hence why I wanted to just go OEM. It's not a bad job to do once you've done it once and free'd everything off but I hate replacing replacement parts.