okay I'll clearly take my "stupid" and I don't recommend anybody doing this that's what I clearly said from the beginning.
Comparing your aftermarket ones with questionably torqued ball joints to my stock ones is slightly questionable but not checking your aftermarket ones for tightness I wouldn't really put down as the world's smartest thing? then another question kind of raises up when I think about it and recheck my deal here but why didn't your alignment place just throw a torque wrench on top of that ball joint and continue going?
It's the way I did it about 4 years ago when I replaced the driver side upper ball joint, but I pressed in all new stuff and put on a ball joints on and I've drove it for about 10 drives now and drag raced it once meaning about 4 or 5 passed down the track and I just got back from a cruise in about 20 minutes ago. I took that picture before I left so I'll take another picture now and see if we have any movement.
There was nothing "questionable" about the ball joints or their torque. They
definitely weren't torqued to 125 ft/lbs. I torqued them down and then I put tens of thousands of street miles on those same ball joints and UCA's without issue. So, it wasn't a problem with the aftermarket UCA's or the ball joints themselves.
Was is smart for me not to check them? No it sure wasn't! But my Challenger was my first Mopar and I replaced the UCA's immediately after I bought it because I needed to fully rebuild the suspension to make the car road worthy. I didn't have a ball joint socket at the time and I assumed the manufacturer of the new UCA's would install them properly. Which they
should have, but of course I should have checked before I installed them. And now I do, live and learn.
The alignment shop was just a standard Les Schwab, they hate even touching anything aftermarket to begin with and they sure as heck weren't going to assume liability for tightening the ball joint. Yes, it's dumb, but it's pretty standard for a shop like that and cars like these especially with aftermarket parts installed. Unless there's someone there that is personally familiar with old cars they've got no idea and just fall back on policy. It's why I finally bought all my own alignment gear, it just got too hard to find shops willing to do a custom alignments on an old Mopar with aftermarket suspension.
As far as your installation, it doesn't matter if they've moved or not. If they haven't it's just a combination
dumb luck and low miles, not a sign that you don't need to torque them to the factory specs. As far as "not recommending" what you did, it doesn't matter. You say you installed them with channel locks and it didn't hurt anything and some moron will get the idea it's ok. And eventually, someone will have a ball joint pop out and end up in the ditch or wrapped around a pole.
Anyway, I'm done derailing this thread with this discussion. If you want to test your luck and keep driving around on those improperly installed ball joints, have it at. Maybe it'll be fine. Or maybe they'll loosen up until the load strips the threads and one of those ball joints pops out at an unfortunate time. Only one way to find out.
Yes, they stay on car - - unless you desire to replace the inner bushing (at front end of torsion bar) - as these large bushes must be in perfect shape and centered.
Later (OEM) 'single-piston' caliper needs the corresponding (lower) ball-joint - which needs the corresponding spindle. 'this is because of the w I d e r bolt spacing (b-joint to spindle). Then, the (corresponding) adaptor bracket attaches and of course the CALIPER is next.
I will be doing all this (and more) when converting my '70 Swinger from small-bolt to large . P.S. What is a good source for (affordable?) 4.5" circle axles for the 8.75" rear?
Best source for BBP 8 3/4 axles is Doctor Diff, same place that sells the ball joint adaptors above. Cass is the man!
Hmm - $45. As I posted about the LCA - - similarly a good idea to remove the upper to replace the two (on each side) inner bushes. Lots of good, used UCA's out there - or new. Why replace inner bushes and upper joint (on smaller unit) and then have to 'fork out' another $50. (plus shipping?) for the adapter when you can start out again with (correct) B or E-body large UCA.
Yeah actually once you subtract the cost of new bushings and ball joints a set of tubular UCA's doesn't look nearly as expensive and you'll get much better alignment numbers if you're running radial tires. But I want to correct you, you aren't using a B/E body UCA. They A-body UCA's are quite different, the change was just the size of the ball joint.
