OK, so I just finished rebuilding most of the front end of my truck (sig) and I think I screwed up on one, or both of the lower ball joints...On the drivers side I followed the torquing specs/sequence best I could, the stud kept turning even with the full weight of the truck on the knuckle, so I ended up hitting it with my impact for the final torque. Seemed to work fine, but that knuckle is really loose, like flopping around.

On the passenger side I forgot to follow the torquing sequence and ran the lower nut down with the impact before touching the top castle nut...stupid. Well that side is REALLY tight, like hard to move the knuckle by hand tight. The truck is nearly back together with the axles, bearings, rotors, and calipers back on.

So what should I do? Pull the passenger side apart and re torque the knuckle like the drivers side? Should it be loose like the drivers side? I assume one side is wrong, maybe both?

 

Follow torque sequence for both without the impact. You may have broken the ball and socket on the right side needing replacement. To prevent replacing knuckle seals so much move the spindle by hand with the tie rod disconnected to feel the smoothness of the ball joints before you reinstall the axle shafts. Grease them as well with moly grease.

 

drivers side wouldn't torque down, post just spun. I don't think the passenger side is broken, I didn't crank it that hard with the impact, its just tight. Honestly, I think the passenger side will loosen up after a couple thousand miles, but the drivers side flopping front to back so easily concerns me. Seems that would cause steering wobble if it was loose like that.

 

Whichever side will not tighten maybe broken. Fix it now before you ruin the spindles and make the cost go way up.

 

That would mean the drivers side was broken to begin with...Is that common for brand new Moog joints?

 

The slot on top of the stud is for holding while torqueing. Never us an impact gun. You either broke the joint or your spindle is wallowed out too much for the taper of the ball stud. Not safe to drive like that. You would not like the way it drives anyway. A short trip could damage the spindles and that may be what was done last time. This job requires a certain level of expertise.

 

(how do you "break" a balljoint?)

The spindle that's so loose, is the ball stud turning in the hole when you move it back and forth?

As for the "stiff" one, it's supposed to be somewhat stiff - You CAN move it by hand, yes? Have you greased them yet?

 

"(how do you "break" a balljoint?)"


By over torqueing a spindle or tie rod ball joint.
It is a ball in a socket like your arm connected to your shoulder.
If your arm was pulled hard enough it would pop out of your shoulder.
Or compression, if your parachute did not open your landing would fracture
your leg and hip ball and socket.
An impact wrench can impart tremendous torque. Ball joints have sintered metal or
plastic bushings around the ball to help it receive grease and that is Moog's claim to fame. They say their ball joints can be greased whereas others sometimes will not accept grease once it is put under load. Heavy duty trucks are recommended to be greased while the truck is on a body lift with the suspension not compressed.


Installation instructions say to not use an impact wrench. They give a specific torque for installation. Not following this will give you memory steer among other problems.
If the OP loosens and properly re-torques the joints in order and the spindle does not move smoothly he may have fractured the joint.

 

je5, with all the stress a ball joint goes through in it's life without breaking, I can't imagine the OP actually broke the internals unless he got a 3/4" impact wrench on it and wailed on it until it stopped turning - and by then he'd probably just strip the nut

And if Moog's are that fragile, I'm glad I used Motorcraft when I did mine (too many Moog issues at the time I did mine)

We won't know until the OP responds to our latest questions...

The big problem is too much tension between the top and bottom ball joints, causing the joints to bind up and be too stiff - as the one "stiff" one appears to be in this thread. With the amount of caster in the SD front suspension (not much, on the ones with leaf-spring front-ends at least) that will definitely cause the steering to not center.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

 

"the stud kept turning even with the full weight of the truck on the knuckle, so I ended up hitting it with my impact for the final torque. Seemed to work fine, but that knuckle is really loose, like flopping around."


What is your guess why the heavy knuckle is flopping around after he impacted it?

 

That the tapered stud isn't really tight in the knuckle, or that Moog isn't all it's cracked up to be?

 

Well Moog claims in their advertisements that they have an oversize taper on the stud to compensate for a wallowed spindle hole.
He said he used an impact gun so it seems that would rule out not being tight enough and he said he got the other side too tight.
I have no picture but it sounds like he broke it even though you think that cannot be done to a ball and socket it sounds like.
If it was only hand tightened it would not flop around as he states. He may have gotten into something above his skill level. He says he is thinking about driving it like that. I hope I do not meet him in opposing traffic. HTH

 

I can assure that moog is not worth it. I used a set on my bronco and 30k miles later it is ready for a new set.

 

wanted to update this, I took the loose side back apart and re-tightened the lower ball joint. It fought me, but by pounding a flat head screw driver under the nut, then turning a 1/4 turn then repeating that a hundred times it finally bit and torqued down. Ball joint was not broken. Got everything back together and it aligned perfectly.

The knuckles did feel pretty stiff, but once it was back together I didn't have any memory steer, in fact if felt like a new truck, love it.

 

Glad to hear you got it back together and everything worked out

Interesting thread.