VERY tight ball joints

[NukeMMC]

So I am assembling my MK4 upper control arms and installing the ball joints. The ball joints provided by FFR are Mevotech(?) MK772. They are made in (Can you guess?) China.

I got one in and seated, but it took a couple hundred ft-lbs to turn the UCA onto the ball joint. The second ball joint is even tighter! Now, I was a submarine mechanic in the Navy for 20 years and have built/restored a few cars, but this is a new one for me. These are new parts and it feels like they are cross threaded! The ball joints are square to the bore of the UCA, so I know they aren't but they sure feel like it.

Any ideas? I am about out of body mass to get this assembled!

[carlewms]

NukeMMC,

When I assembled mine, I recall it being pretty tight. Per the assembly manual, locked the ball joint in a vice and then turned the A arm to "mount" the ball joint to the UCA. I know you MMCs are a pretty strong bunch (I was a surface ...target in your vernacular, nuc); but I cannot imagine you to have them to be cross threaded. My guess is you have two parts at the extremes of their tolerance ranges (if there is such a thing for a Chinese made part). I am almost to the roller stage and the fitment of parts like this will continue.

The only solution I can see would be to see if you can reverse the process to check for cross threading and ease of removal.

If you cannot fit the second one, I would call FFR tech folks and see what the say.

Carl

[CraigS]

I have read posts like yours and replies where they screwed in nearly by hand. I suspect it is a combination of the tolerances mentioned by Carl and possibly the short sleeve they screw into in the UCA may warp when being welded.

[Rich]

We just ran into the same thing - With both my dad and I cranking on it (two 200+lb dudes) we couldn't get it to go in more than a single turn!

Called FFR and they said switch the two ball joints from side to side and see if you can get them in, if not, call back.

These Chinese-made parts are unacceptable..... grr.

--Rich

[EricatHeritage]

When I assembled the upper control arms that came with my kit, one side screwed right with nothing more than the correct size ball joint socket and a half inch drive socket wrench. The other side required the correct size ball joint socket, a three foot breaker bar AND sliding the four foot handle of my floor jack over the breaker bar.

It's the luck of the draw folks.

[Joe Scott]

Hey Guys 9 times out of 10 its not the ball joint, but the receiver end on the control arm. the slightest of misalignment between the two will make it harder to screw them in

Joe@FFRTECH

[NukeMMC]

I got one in all the way, but it took just about everything I had. I took the other in to work today and used the vise in the maintenance shop, since I was making the wood creak and crack with the force I was using to get it about 1/8" from seated. It wouldn't budge. One of the mechanics used a 2# crosspeen with a 1" brass drift. A couple good blows with that and it barely moved.
23649

Next course of action is to call FFR tomorrow. Otherwise, I will use the cutoff wheel to remove the balljoint cap, remove the ball/stem and collapse the walls of the balljoint housing.

If the receiver of the UCA is warped from the weld, they (SPC Performance) may want to consider using an aluminum heatsink threaded into the receiver when they are welding it and use multiple, short beads (6 minimum) to weld it on. I have done a bunch of Rosemount thermowell attachments that use M44 x 1.25 threaded aluminum heatsinks during the attachment weld. If you don't have the heatsink in the thermowell spud while welding, you will be cutting it out and doing it right after you try and install the instrument.

[CraigS]

I'd put a couple of weld beads on that and call it done.

[NukeMMC]

I'd put a couple of weld beads on that and call it done.
That's not going to happen for a couple reasons:
1) I am NOT doing anything halfway on this project where my craftsmanship is involved.
2) Even though FFR tech today said the fact that I got these to thread on, even though it took at least a couple hundred ft-lbs (no exaggeration), they are OK. It is just to keep them from backing out. (After a 20 year career as a mechanic, I have to raise the big, bright red Bull-fecal-matter flag to that. By torque alone they are evident of an excessive interference fit.)
3) It doesn't make sense to introduce a 1/8"+ difference in left-to-right UCA to LCA geometry.

[carlewms]

I would ask for a replacement part but I am not sure how you will know it won't have the same problem. If you are close enough you could go down to FFR.

I have heard of putting two weld beads but only on fully seated parts; I recall there was a whole thread on this subject on the other forum. As I understood the rationale for it was to keep the ball joint from backing out under use. I elected not to do this.

Edit: I went to the garage and verified that both of mine were fully seated. I would not have it any other way.

Carl

[Erik W. Treves]

if you slightly heat the arm (where the ball joint screws in) and freeze (about 30 minutes) the ball joint it goes in like butter.

[NukeMMC]

UPDATE
I received the box from Summit yesterday with the Moog ball joints (http://www.summitracing.com/parts/mog-k772)and the Ball joint tool (http://www.summitracing.com/parts/pof-124-10001/overview/).
I took the ball joints and receivers in to work, and using a 600 ft-lbs torque wrench, I removed the VERY tight, FFR-supplied, MevOTech (made in China) ball joints. The one that actually seated removed with 245 ft-lbs. The one that did not fully seat removed with a paltry 360 ft-lbs. But that's OK, because FFR Tech said they were OK and just because they were tight, the fact that they went together at all meant they were OK ... Really!

The Moog ball joints went in all but 1/8" by hand, then the wrench took them home quite easily. For posterity, I torqued them to 125 ft-lbs, even with the Loctite.

The Moogs are THE way to go folks. They even came with cotter pin, washer and the zerk (grease fitting) had a 45* adapter.

[David Hodgkins]

You may want to tack weld those in.

:)

[NukeMMC]

You may want to tack weld those in.

:)

Once the Loctite has a chance to set up, I will run a couple tacks with the tig torch. Thanks for the tip!

[carlewms]

Glad you got it solved although disappointed you did not get more assistance from FFR.