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Odd problem with balljoint preload sleeve in d44

Stomis

Stomis

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I just went to throw the knuckles on my axle and torque the balljoints before going to my parents for thanksgiving and Im having a weird issue.

The Driver side went on fine. Passenger side is being weird.

I torqued the bottom balljoint to spec. Then put the sleeve in and the sleeve wants to thread WAY in before it has any resistance. Like its only in the C by a couple threads and hanging way the **** out the bottom.

Something must be wrong. Either a defective sleeve, or defective upper balljoint. The taper has got to be wrong somewhere.

My first thought was that the lower balljoints arent pulling up far enough but I measured the distance from the lower C to the knuckle and its the same on both sides...

Anyone had this happen before?

I havent had the time to take it apart yet and I also have an old still good sleeve to try.
 
try the old sleeve.may have the wrong one for your axle in the new ball joint box.could have been a mistake at the factory.when i replaced my balljoints,i left the old ones in and dont have any problems.if yours still looks good,you can maybe reuse it.or go back to the store you got it from and compare to a new one.
 
if the bottom joint isn't pressed all the way in, it will leave the top joint short of it's target, like you are describing. You got the lower joint clip in place right? That should be the end to that if it's in place.

I'd go back and also make sure the lower joint is in fact all the way up into the taper. Otherwise, I'm out of ideas.
 
K85 Octane said:
if the bottom joint isn't pressed all the way in, it will leave the top joint short of it's target, like you are describing. You got the lower joint clip in place right? That should be the end to that if it's in place.

I'd go back and also make sure the lower joint is in fact all the way up into the taper. Otherwise, I'm out of ideas.
Click to expand...

Im going to try the sleeve first.

The ball joints are 100% in the knuckles. Now as to whether the lower stud is 100% in the taper or not we'll see.

Something is wrong. I was just curious if this has happened to anyone before.
 
GreenieK30 said:
That happens when the inner "C" is bent. The upper part bends up and in.
Click to expand...


UGH :doah:

Dont say that I gave that thing an f'ing whaling trying to get it off...

Actually no wait. This is the C I didnt touch. The one I beat the **** out of is fine. I didnt think it was even possible to bend that stuff w/o jumping the truck or getting in an accident.


I guess Ill measure the two Cs against each other and take the torch and hammer to the f'er if its messed up...
 
Can you get something in there and measure the width of the bj stud? Maybe compare it to the other side?

I'm betting on a wrong or missbuilt bj, has the wrong stud in it or something like that.
 
Kind of a hijack ? but, what is the preload sleeve? is it replaceable? I'm about to rebuild the outers completly on my d44 and havent heard of them. cant find them mentioned in a search of the parts stores either:dunno: sorry for the minor hijack
 
shady said:
Kind of a hijack ? but, what is the preload sleeve? is it replaceable? I'm about to rebuild the outers completly on my d44 and havent heard of them. cant find them mentioned in a search of the parts stores either:dunno: sorry for the minor hijack
Click to expand...

The sleeve comes with new upper ball joints. It require a 4 prong socket to screw in.

Heres a small pic but a good one of where it is and the tool.

OTC7080-L.gif



496truck said:
Can you get something in there and measure the width of the bj stud? Maybe compare it to the other side?

I'm betting on a wrong or missbuilt bj, has the wrong stud in it or something like that.
Click to expand...

Im hoping. Im gonna remove the knuckles and measure the balljoint and try the new sleeve I have. Also gonna measure the inner C.
 
Apparently I bought too cheap of joints:doah: No sleeve in the box:confused:
 
shady said:
Apparently I bought too cheap of joints:doah: No sleeve in the box:confused:
Click to expand...

Replacing them isn't necessary. Properly torquing/preloading the bj's with them IS necessary. The old ones will work fine, just make sure oyu have the right specialty socket.
 
GreenieK30 said:
That happens when the inner "C" is bent. The upper part bends up and in.
Click to expand...


Yep inner C is bent. Guess that tumble the housing took from my 4 foot bench did **** something up :doah:

The bent side is 1/4in more spread apart than the good side. Ill put the torch on it at work on monday and bend it back.
 
Stomis said:
Ill fix her with rosie and a BFH on monday. Not the end of the world.
Click to expand...

A great many problems in this world are solved with the sledge :D

So do you measure against the other side, to make sure you don't bork the camber/caster/whatever angles?

-- A
 
dremu said:
A great many problems in this world are solved with the sledge :D

So do you measure against the other side, to make sure you don't bork the camber/caster/whatever angles?

-- A
Click to expand...

Well all of my measurements for camber caster were taken off the bottom milled surface for the lower ball joint.

Seeing as how the drivers side C is seating totally fine and appears to be correct the only real move I can make is to make the bent passenger side one match the height of the non bent one.

Like I said theres a 1/4in difference in height and since the lower part of that C has all the correct camber caster angle is it Im going to pound the adjustment out of the top.
 
that sucks,but at least its fixable hopefully.and this is going under a toyota i think you have right?so hopefully bending it back will still be strong enough with a light truck.
 
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