Front control Arms And Spindles

[eamici]

Got to the point where I was installing the spindles. The upper ball joint threaded rod is supposed to fit in the top of the spindle and the lower one the same way capped both off with the castle nuts & cotter pins. The problem is the upper ball joint rod seems too short. When I slide it into the top of the spindle, not enough of it is exposed making it impossible to thread the castle nut.

[Papa]

Here is a picture of mine installed:

[Paul2STL]

Got to the point where I was installing the spindles. The upper ball joint threaded rod is supposed to fit in the top of the spindle and the lower one the same way capped both off with the castle nuts & cotter pins. The problem is the upper ball joint rod seems too short. When I slide it into the top of the spindle, not enough of it is exposed making it impossible to thread the castle nut.

Put pressure on top of the ball joint smashing down the boot, that should give you plenty of treads to start the nut.

[CDXXVII]

It also helps if you raise the lower control arms up so that they are level to the ground.

[eamici]

How do you raise the lower arm since it's being held in place by the shock? It seems like the shock is limiting how much I can move the lower arm.

[3yearplan]

Just place a floor jack under it, it will raise up nicely.

[axle_dem0n]

I agree with 3yearplan, floorjack.

[eamici]

Will give it a try. When the adjustments are complete, should the spindle rotate freely, without much effort?

[CraigS]

It should move freely but w/ some effort. The ball joints are usually kind of tight when they are new.

[eamici]

It should move freely but w/ some effort. The ball joints are usually kind of tight when they are new.

Any idea how many threads should be exposed at the top of the coil shock?

[edwardb]

How do you raise the lower arm since it's being held in place by the shock? It seems like the shock is limiting how much I can move the lower arm.

There's no reason to have the coilover shock installed before getting the upper and lower ball joints buttoned up. Get it out of there so you can have relatively free movement. The ball joints will still be stiff as mentioned. But much easier to work that way.

Any idea how many threads should be exposed at the top of the coil shock?

For the initial setting, run the adjuster down on all four shocks to just where it touches the coil. Later when you have it down on the wheels, you can check ride height and adjust further. The ride height will be too high at that setting, but it's where to start. Then when you adjust ride height, (1) leave it a bit high for starters because it will settle, (2) always adjust the front and rear pairs exactly the same amount. Normally this will give a pretty accurate setup without actually corner weighting it.