76 Camaro Balljoint Q

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ray - 28 May 2004 19:05 GMT

my bud and his dad were helping me work on the racecar
(76 Camaro dirt track car) yesterday - I snapped the lower
balljoint pretty much in half... and I decided to change both so it'll
hopefully survive the next race in one piece.

anyway, they had a heck of a time getting the spindle back on and seated
all the way on the upper joint - I think it's still loose, and I think
they ended up buggering up the joint because now the whole "stud" of the
joint spins when you try to tighten it up. The gap looks awful big as well.

I'm going to get another balljoint today incase they did bugger it up
and I'm going to have another go at it tonight - any tips on
reinstalling the top balljoint on a 76 Camaro? The car has probably 5
degrees of camber (oval track car...came that way) would that make it
harder to line it back up? Upper first, then lower? Disconnect sway
bar and tie rod? (I'll be putting a chain through the spring before
busting it loose - I'm too young to die...)

Ray

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S.S.I.N. - 29 May 2004 01:20 GMT

"ray"

>a heck of a time getting the spindle back on and seated
> all the way on the upper joint - I think it's still loose,

sounds like they may have gotten the wong part.
if the part is right and the spindle is loose on the ball joint get a new
spindle

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http://crazyedmonton.no-ip.com

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Ray - 29 May 2004 06:17 GMT

> "ray"
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> if the part is right and the spindle is loose on the ball joint get a new
> spindle

it's the right part - looks like all F-bods from 70-81 use the same
upper ball joint. I picked up another balljoint tonight so I'm going to
have another go at it tomorrow...

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JazzMan - 29 May 2004 15:38 GMT

> my bud and his dad were helping me work on the racecar
> (76 Camaro dirt track car) yesterday - I snapped the lower
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> bar and tie rod? (I'll be putting a chain through the spring before
> busting it loose - I'm too young to die...)

The ball joint connects to the spindle with a tapered joint,
and it's common for the taper in the spindle to be wallowed
out. If it is, you can attempt to recut the tapered hole if
it's not too bad, but the cost of a tapered reamer is likely
to be more than a used spindle in good shape, so simply
replacing the spindle would be the way to go if it is indeed
wallowed out.

JazzMan

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Ray - 29 May 2004 15:50 GMT

>>my bud and his dad were helping me work on the racecar
>>(76 Camaro dirt track car) yesterday - I snapped the lower
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
>
> JazzMan

I think that would give me the opposite problem of what we had. If the
hole in the spindle was too big we'd have the nut tightened and it could
move up and down on the shaft of the joint - what I saw was the shaft of
the ball joint effectively "Jamming" leaving a HUGE gap in between the
ball/dust cap end and the spindle. Almost like the hole in the spindle
is too small and then they tried overtightening the sucker to pull the
pieces together.

I picked up another joint yesterday and am going to go tear it apart
shortly to see what's up...

Ray

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