Ball Joint Issue

[jmberry]

I have a 98 Taurus SE Sedan that I do most all the repairs on. I flunked my annual inspection due to loose ball joints. I removed the knuckles and had a machine shop press new ball joints in. Now I've replaced the knuckles, but something doesn't look right to me. There's a 1/4'' space between the control arm and the rubber boot of the ball joint.

The ball joint stud goes into a hole in the lower control arm and is held in with a nut, not a pinch bolt. Becuse the stud is tapered, it bottoms-out before it gets up to the boot. I've torqued the nut. Maybe it's supposed to be like this? Any opinions?

[shorod]

Welcome to the forum!

A 1/4 inch space between the lower control arm and dust boot sounds excessive to me. I no longer have my '98 to look at, but I don't remember any gap there when I replaced the knuckle and ball joint assemblies on my car. I seem to remember being careful that I didn't end up pinching the dust boots as I torqued the ball joints in. I've done numerous ball joints in my past though, but I don't remember EVER seeing one where the boot didn't make contact with the opposite surface. In most cases, that contact is a big part in sealing the dust boot so dust/dirt won't get between the shaft and the boot.

I know there have a been a few others here that performed exactly this repair recently and hopefully they'll chime in.

-Rod

[jmberry]

Thanks for the input shorod. I agree with what you had to say. I talked to the guy at the machine shop that pressed in the new balljoints. He said the aftermarket balljoint stud is tapered to fit a pinch-bolt system, but also works on the Taurus lower control arm that has a hole instead. He said as long as you can torque it down not to worry about it. What do you think?

[inafogg]

hello jm i still believe thats too much 1/4 like shorod said.i'd be uncomfortable with driving car that way.you say that the bj does'nt have a tapper to it i thought all front suspension parts were tappered(bj, tie rod, pitmans etc.)

[shorod]

I'd want to see a picture before speculating further. From your description, it doesn't sound right to me. If nothing else, your dust boot won't be able to properly do its job, so the joint will likely fail prematurely.

-Rod

[jmberry]

Okay thanks guys. Yes, the stud does have a taper to it. I'll see if I can get a picture and send it in. Jim

[Colt Hero]

Don't remember having any gap between the control arm and the joint, but I used the Ford OEM joint. Maybe an aftermarket joint has an irregular shape that could create this illusion. I know that when I bought the Ford joint ($45), I compared it to the Autozone Duralast joint and noticed that the stud on the Duralast joint was about 1/4" shorter (which concerned me). Other than that, they looked about the same.