A Body Disc Brake Swap 101

2 Darts said
Nice thread, Bruce. I, too, am in the process of doing the BBP conversion. LMAO, I have both a 3 and a 4 foot cheater bar that I have only used for the purpose of removing the UBJ.

All of the 73 > A-bodies use the larger upper ball joint. (Truth be told there are 3 different ball joint sizes, but the third only shows up on trucks and some early Imperials.)

Attached a photos of tools that are in some cases necessary and others nice to have. For instance the smaller ball joint socket is not needed if you drop the upper control arm and spindle as a complete unit. It's heavy, so watch out.

From left to right:

Torsion bar removal tool, tie rod separator, ball joint separator (aka pickle fork), large upper ball joint socket, small upper ball joint socket.

Might I suggest in place of the pickle fork, one uses a BFH (large hammer) and hit the spindle where the tappered end of the ball joint goes through the spindle. This method also works on the tie-rod end where it also goes through the spindle and/or any tappered fit.

I suggest loosening the ball joint nut (or tie-rod end nut) and back it out a turn or two but don't remove it before hitting the spindle. This will keep things together once the tappered fit of the ball joint breaks free from the spindle.

In all my years at the dealer I've never had a need for a pickle fork. This also works on any small engine that has a trappered fit flywheel. I place the plastic handle of a junk screw driver between the flywheel and hammer to avoid knocking magnets loose.

Just a thought.

FNG - John