If this were motor trend or another of those slick productions you would never have seen you struggling to keep all the pieces together to extract the ball joint. Thanks for keeping it real Kiwi.
The reality is it's not easy to wrangle the four or five parts of the ball joint tool and the impact gun and remember to have it spinning the right direction.....😳. The struggle goes on 😁😎👍
I've seen this happen when re-using the cotter pin. The pin brakes and a little piece of the pin binds in the threads as the nut backs off. When I was younger a buddy of mine replaced the ball joints on his roadrunner. I told him to get new cotter pins, even offered to go get some. He said nah, it'll be alright. Looked just like that when it gave way on day as he backed out of his driveway. Lol
Yes, sir I learned from my dad to use fresh cotter pins. I may digress a little if I had to remove a pin that I know was just installed by myself but going behind others it was good practice to use new pins. You can tell if a cotter pin was recently installed by the way it looks and yes in a pinch one must use a previously installed pin but as a rule it is best to install new ones. It does not cost that much to have a complete assortment of cotter pins on hand.
Had exactly the same thing happen to my HQ Holden years ago. Ball joints had been replaced only weeks before. On inspection after the incident I realised that the actual nut was only half the length of the original factory ball joint, not enough threads to contain it. Lucky I was doing about 10 mph when it happened, the night before I'd been on the freeway doing north of 70 mph. Very lucky.
Well I can get a 12ton press for $170 and that's quite a bit less than I paid for my ball joint set but I find it more useful ! Also it saves time by not needing full disassembly of the suspension which equals less hours billed to the customer.
Really nice Firebird. 50 years ago we had a more violent and hard way of doing ball joints. You probably used the same forks as us. On your back at night in winter. Haha. Funny we had fun those days. Cheers 🇨🇦
Painted or powder coated steering components, stub axles ect, make sure none is in the taper or nut surface. The tapered surface should be clean dry metal. A friend of mine restored a Holden SLR 5000 Torana. He had powder coated the stub axles, and only on the road for a week before the bottom ball joint came out after it unscrewed the nut and sheared the split pin off, and the other side had started unscrewing the nut also.
About that trunk floor repair It's a funny thing , some ppl like that you leave it show and see that it's solid, other loose their minds and think it should be hidden because it's "restored" Looks great to me
Great video Kiwi. Definitely a great example of how important quality of parts, especially for critical areas like steering are. Cheap isn’t worth it. It wasn’t in the video but I can’t help but ask if the rear studs were loose too. Thanks for sharing.
I was driving my 68 Chevy C10 pickup on the freeway when the driver’s front wheel went. I spun her around and dug the rear diamond plate bumper into the mud in the median. What a wild ride! Very little damage.
This is a really nice car... With the exception of the wheel studs backing out, it looks like whoever built the car did a good job. They actually paid attention to details. Ride-tech used to make pretty nice suspension components, but I haven't used any recently. I doubt that they are manufacturing the ball joints, so it's not their fault it failed unless there is a geometry problem, but I really doubt that... I am a little surprised that they don't use bolt in ball joints on their control arms. I keep thinking that they used to use them, but it's been awhile. Replacing the lower ball joint on the other side was a good idea. It's cheap insurance and worth it for the peace of mind if nothing else. With my OCD, I would have replaced both upper ball joints too, although they are probably just fine. It's definitely a different color that they painted the car, but it looks really good. This is one of the few cars that you have had on your lift where you can see that the bottom of the rockers and quarter panels were prepped and sprayed like they are supposed to be. So many people don't take the time and put out the effort to finish those areas nicely. In my opinion, the areas that you can't normally see should be finished just as nice as the parts that you can see...
Hard to tell. But if it had been that loose all along, there would have probably been damage to the taper. Instead, where we see the damage is on the threads. I wonder if the nut had been cross-threaded or something. It's pretty strange.
When i ran my flatbed (UD1800 / jer dan ) i was always carrying 2x4s and 4x4s to use like a ski loading and unloading cars like that or stolens missing the wheels ,a small piece of wood saved a lot of damage and time ..i miss that biz just not AAA Nice video too kiwi
@@kiwiclassicsandcustoms9160 AAA can be less than wonderful - my last experience was really good though. The driver was really careful loading my lowered (too low 😉) VW bus onto the flatbed and offloading it into my driveway. That is a really nice Firebird, and glad it wasn't damaged and brought to a great shop! 👍
Mr. B. Here ! 🍩☕️👀😎👍 ; My big guess is that ball joint was installed incorrectly ! Year back when I was working service manager one of the guys who worked for me installed one incorrectly cross threat, customer pick up car fram drop in drive way ! 🤮🤮. Have a good evening Chris ! 🍸🍸👀😎👍
Those are some nice long roads back there. I took a ride back through there and went down a long straight road, made sure nobody was around. 🚔 Turned around and blew some carbon out, hit about 135. 😂
First off THANK YOU for doing what alot of people wouldn't do - replacing the other ball joint - sign of a great mechanic ! Cant tell you how many times I've seen people do just the one and end up having to do the other a little later on and in this case there would be no doubt that both would get replaced no matter what. Great catch on the wheel studs also. I see you also know the machinist trick - put the part in the freezer for a little while! It makes life just that little bit easier. Keep the great videos coming! Also nice to see I'm not the only one that has to pick up their tools at least twice off the ground while working on a car!🤣
Yes, sir that is a well-done car. I would surmise that whoever did the work on the front end got a little sloppy with some assembly tasks. I myself have gotten into the habit of using Loctite Red on most fasteners along with proper torque procedures. Of course, the Loctite also serves as a thread lubricant. A lot of these You Tube videos the installers put things together with dry threads and I was always taught to lubricate the threads. A good friend of mine did that religiously. I would submit that an extreme pressure grease be applied to the threads of the ball joint tool as with use those threads get hot. Granted it can get kind of messy, but it may extend the life of the forcing screw. Like yourself I was impressed with the craftsmanship in the installation of the lines and fittings and was impressed with the fuel line connections and the heater hose connections. That kind of work does not come cheap. Again, my dad was always doing things like that. He especially was good at bending up lines with a tubing bender and doing proper flaring as well as any clamps on lines as well. He especially liked to plumb up fuel lines to look factory. My brother had the same trouble with an eighty-five Chevrolet truck, it seems as though the installer (a kid) did not torque up the lower ball joint nuts and the ball joint studs actually were wobbling around in the spindle. They were just to the point where the spindle bore was getting to the point of wallowing out and that would result in replacement of the spindle. I had to cut the ball joint studs out as the threads were so mangled I could not get the nuts off.🥸👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
I did so many in the 80s and 90s with a section of fence pipe along with sledge or air chisel . Was finally able to afford the OTC kit mid 90s when GM stopped building cars with those weak ball joints . Used up a lot of chisels on the original uppers . I was lucky that my 77 Chevy van lost a lower backing into a parking spot as i had just come off the highway minutes before . There was big money in GM front ends back in those days due to the extreme geometry caused high wear rates on the Roger Smith cheapened parts .
@@DarkFlamage lmao…. Wasn’t my point that you could buy from Dalton. It was a plug for my favorite boob tuber. If anyone knows we’re to find a Pontiac 400 it’s Dalton @PBG Thanks for playing though
Looks like a lot of money into the car! Speculation on losing a ball joint like that . . . hmmm? What makes metal fatigue like that? Could of been disaster! Nice job on replacing the piece!
usually when you have ball joint failure like that, there is also spindle damage as well. as a professional, I'm sure you checked the taper in the spindle to make sure there would be no failure in the future. great vid. Thanks
I was concerned that the taper may have been damaged. I visually inspected it and tested the new ball joint in spindle to check that it was grabbing into the spindle hole with just a small amount of pressure
Possibly a manufacturing defect on the ball joint, improper heat treating of the stud left it soft? A friend had improperly manufactured lug nuts on Cragar mags, all the threads pulled out and his front wheel left the car.
People put crap on the Ford Mustang suspension with the spring towers in the engine bay, but having the spring on top of the top control arm actually pushes the ball joint into its socket instead of this type of suspension which the spring pressure tries to pull the ball joint out of its socket, like this did. I go with the Ford set up.
I suspect the nut wasnt tightened properly on the ball joint, and its loosened off enough to start flogging away at the threads , the owner perhaps couldn't hear , or ignored a slight clunking, allowing it enough time to fully work it's way off completely ( could it also maybe be Chinese crap? ). Oh by the way, the tri power manifold and carburetors I mentioned in your last live stream, for a 318 Chrysler poly engine, was manufactured by Edelbrock in the early to mid sixties, its an , " Edelbrock P600 " manifold, with x3 2 barrel 97 Stromberg carbs.
Ridetech use ProForm ball joints that are made in Canada. I quizzed Ridetech about the failure and if it was a "thing". They felt it was an installation error and recommended using ProForm replacements. That manifold would be cool !!!
Had this exact thing happen on a Toyota Hatchback back in my teens. On the interstate and the driver's side ball joint snapped which caused the other to fail and the wheel went half a mile further than we did. Sounded like an old woman screaming, then thud and scraping, and then realizing we were so lucky and stranded.
Kev too busy drinking all of your bourbon and playing Minecraft on the office computer to help you with that ball joint tool? Disgraceful. That Firebird sure looks like a really nice build...actually a refreshing change from the bodge jobs that seem to find your shop on a semi-regular basis!
I've never been a fan of press in ball joints. Or any press in suspension component. I would much rather have a bolt on component. Much easier to change. And in my opinion, much safer and stronger
Nice car. Yeah they were lucky. Nothing happened. It just dropped. I had an '05 Ford f150 and the front ball joint went lower ball joint broke right off. I was lucky that it just fell on the rim. I had steel rims on it so it didn't do anything to it but it could have been a lot worse. Scary feeling when you're going down the country roads. Good video. 👍👍🙂🇨🇦
I reckon you would have still been in NZ when we had a batch of crook HQ-HZ Holden lower ball joints, where the ball was pulling out of the joint. Same result. I do have a 12t press, and no ball joint tool, so yeah, arms come off for me. Those wheel studs were scary.
Would be nice to know who did the work on this car, it’s good to promote shops like yours and whoever did this car, could have been the owner, if so they really knew what they were doing 👍🇦🇺
Is that the OTC press set? I have that one and it's always performed well, but I get lost in the adapters sometimes. Borrowed a buddy's Snap-On press set once and it's actually a better design but with fewer pieces. Snap-On price too though! 😲
Mechanics these days see more and more Nylock nuts that some joints come with. I would say that they could not get to the split pin to remove it and they just use power tools to remove the nut. This would have galled up the threads. Damaged the nut and ball joints threads. The nut would have been put back on with no care and they were lucky not to have a catastrophic accident. The damaged threads would not load the taper so I think there would have been a couple of knocks before she let go
Saw that union also,rewound it and I am pretty sure it was a flare with a flare union. Looks like they went from steel to nickel copper. Wouldnt swear to it. Sure Kiwi would have picked up on that stupidity.
It's not a compression fitting, it's a brake pipe union using double flare fittings. I agree with you on not using compression fittings, just not up to the kinda of line pressures you see on heavy braking!!
@@kiwiclassicsandcustoms9160 Ah ok, was hard to tell in the video. My VW jetta comes factory with those proper compression fittings up under the driver side floor , nothing wrong with those types of fittings.
Definitely replace both ball joints Not sure if , this is a result of , Erroneous / weak components Especially , the way those threads Just pulled through
@@jimamizzi1 I was only referring to the front end. The ride tech suspension and loose wheel studs gave me pause. I've driven cars for 40 years and never had a ball joint break. My thoughts leaned towards that front suspension geometry not being correct and put undo strain on those ball joints. The rest of the undercarriage looked very well done.
Seeing this more and more lately with aftermarket tubular control arms. Cheap azz Chinese ball joints mixed with coil over suspension, big brakes and big sway bar. Sad to see even with name brand kits
Poor firebird just had to get rid of those rims. 😂😂
They look totally out of place on that Firebird.
....some people just have NO TASTE.....classic cars do NOT need wagon wheels....no
Most American cars are designed by people with no tast the firebird and comaros where a rare exception 😂😂😂😂@@ssnerd583
If this were motor trend or another of those slick productions you would never have seen you struggling to keep all the pieces together to extract the ball joint. Thanks for keeping it real Kiwi.
The reality is it's not easy to wrangle the four or five parts of the ball joint tool and the impact gun and remember to have it spinning the right direction.....😳. The struggle goes on 😁😎👍
@@kiwiclassicsandcustoms9160 It looks more civilized than a pickle fork and hammer.
Your comment tells me that you’ve never watched Roadkill Garage.
I haven't 😁
Great lesson on following the instructions!
Yes!!!
After some of the disasters that you show it's nice to see this quality ow workmanship. I'll quote you, "Nice car".
Nice no damage save! She's a lucky gal!
I've seen this happen when re-using the cotter pin. The pin brakes and a little piece of the pin binds in the threads as the nut backs off. When I was younger a buddy of mine replaced the ball joints on his roadrunner. I told him to get new cotter pins, even offered to go get some. He said nah, it'll be alright. Looked just like that when it gave way on day as he backed out of his driveway. Lol
Yes, sir I learned from my dad to use fresh cotter pins. I may digress a little if I had to remove a pin that I know was just installed by myself but going behind others it was good practice to use new pins. You can tell if a cotter pin was recently installed by the way it looks and yes in a pinch one must use a previously installed pin but as a rule it is best to install new ones. It does not cost that much to have a complete assortment of cotter pins on hand.
What are cotter pin brakes? Sounds scary hope,sounds like they break easily
Gravity must be pretty high at your place mate, tools keep making their way to the floor😂
Between gravity and Bourbon it's a challenge mate!!
Had exactly the same thing happen to my HQ Holden years ago. Ball joints had been replaced only weeks before. On inspection after the incident I realised that the actual nut was only half the length of the original factory ball joint, not enough threads to contain it. Lucky I was doing about 10 mph when it happened, the night before I'd been on the freeway doing north of 70 mph. Very lucky.
I do wonder if it was the nut that failed🤔
I used to see a few in late 90s/early 2000s sitting on ground with scrape marks.
Great video!!! Glad you're able to correct those details... I know the owner appreciates you!!
A ball joint set is the poor man's press. I don't think I've ever used mine on a ball joint but it's certainly great for servicing u-joints.
Well I can get a 12ton press for $170 and that's quite a bit less than I paid for my ball joint set but I find it more useful ! Also it saves time by not needing full disassembly of the suspension which equals less hours billed to the customer.
I watched the ausdie tailstrike live and i could not beleive they let the plane take off again!
Yes!!! That was crazy, he should have been grounded !!!! I assume he made it back .......
Nice ride 🙂. You have a perfect little test drive route 👍
Really nice Firebird. 50 years ago we had a more violent and hard way of doing ball joints. You probably used the same forks as us. On your back at night in winter. Haha. Funny we had fun those days. Cheers 🇨🇦
Eric from South Main Auto always yells “Man Down” when he drops a tool. I filled in for him when you were fighting with the ball joint press. 😂
Painted or powder coated steering components, stub axles ect, make sure none is in the taper or nut surface. The tapered surface should be clean dry metal. A friend of mine restored a Holden SLR 5000 Torana. He had powder coated the stub axles, and only on the road for a week before the bottom ball joint came out after it unscrewed the nut and sheared the split pin off, and the other side had started unscrewing the nut also.
That could well be the real cause of what happened! 🤔. Thanks for the heads up!!
About that trunk floor repair It's a funny thing , some ppl like that you leave it show and see that it's solid, other loose their minds and think it should be hidden because it's "restored"
Looks great to me
Agreed!! It looks fine!
Great video Kiwi. Definitely a great example of how important quality of parts, especially for critical areas like steering are. Cheap isn’t worth it. It wasn’t in the video but I can’t help but ask if the rear studs were loose too. Thanks for sharing.
Rear studs are press in not screw in so they were good!!
@@kiwiclassicsandcustoms9160 I learn a new thing every day 👍🏻
Always the professional, looking for other issues rather than what it came in for , great job kiwi, the Burt Munro of US cars.
That's high praise indeed!! Not sure I deserve it but thanks!
Gonna upset the Camaro guys, but the Pontiac interpretation of that platform is stylistically superior in every way.
"The magic of Hollywood "😂❤
she is a sweetheart
Beautiful car - VERY lucky lady, that it happened in a shopping car park!!!!!
Yes indeed !!
Kiwi is a master of all things! TYVM for another fine repair video.
Cheers mate!!
Wow very nice Firebird Kiwi and good eye spotting those loose lug bolts..
I was driving my 68 Chevy C10 pickup on the freeway when the driver’s front wheel went. I spun her around and dug the rear diamond plate bumper into the mud in the median. What a wild ride! Very little damage.
I like this firebird
This is a really nice car... With the exception of the wheel studs backing out, it looks like
whoever built the car did a good job. They actually paid attention to details.
Ride-tech used to make pretty nice suspension components, but I haven't used any recently.
I doubt that they are manufacturing the ball joints, so it's not their fault it failed unless there is
a geometry problem, but I really doubt that... I am a little surprised that they don't use bolt in
ball joints on their control arms. I keep thinking that they used to use them, but it's been awhile.
Replacing the lower ball joint on the other side was a good idea. It's cheap insurance and worth
it for the peace of mind if nothing else. With my OCD, I would have replaced both upper ball joints too,
although they are probably just fine.
It's definitely a different color that they painted the car, but it looks really good. This is one of the few cars
that you have had on your lift where you can see that the bottom of the rockers and quarter panels were prepped
and sprayed like they are supposed to be. So many people don't take the time and put out the effort
to finish those areas nicely. In my opinion, the areas that you can't normally see should be
finished just as nice as the parts that you can see...
Great car. Beautiful work all over her.
Beautiful old Firebird with nice mods but I do question replacing the Pontiac engine even if the 383 Chevy is healthy.
Does this mean the ball joint was never tight in the first place.
I'd say.
Hard to tell. But if it had been that loose all along, there would have probably been damage to the taper. Instead, where we see the damage is on the threads. I wonder if the nut had been cross-threaded or something. It's pretty strange.
Nice car, good catch on the studs.
Thanks man and thanks for watching!!
When i ran my flatbed (UD1800 / jer dan ) i was always carrying 2x4s and 4x4s to use like a ski loading and unloading cars like that or stolens missing the wheels ,a small piece of wood saved a lot of damage and time ..i miss that biz just not AAA
Nice video too kiwi
AAA suck!!!
@@kiwiclassicsandcustoms9160 AAA can be less than wonderful - my last experience was really good though. The driver was really careful loading my lowered (too low 😉) VW bus onto the flatbed and offloading it into my driveway.
That is a really nice Firebird, and glad it wasn't damaged and brought to a great shop! 👍
Mr. B. Here ! 🍩☕️👀😎👍 ; My big guess is that ball joint was installed incorrectly ! Year back when I was working service manager one of the guys who worked for me installed one incorrectly cross threat, customer pick up car fram drop in drive way ! 🤮🤮. Have a good evening Chris ! 🍸🍸👀😎👍
Mr B!!!🐝
Those are some nice long roads back there. I took a ride back through there and went down a long straight road, made sure nobody was around. 🚔 Turned around and blew some carbon out, hit about 135. 😂
80/ 90 gear oil on the threads of the press is vital to reduce friction and possible galling.
First off THANK YOU for doing what alot of people wouldn't do - replacing the other ball joint - sign of a great mechanic ! Cant tell you how many times I've seen people do just the one and end up having to do the other a little later on and in this case there would be no doubt that both would get replaced no matter what. Great catch on the wheel studs also. I see you also know the machinist trick - put the part in the freezer for a little while! It makes life just that little bit easier. Keep the great videos coming!
Also nice to see I'm not the only one that has to pick up their tools at least twice off the ground while working on a car!🤣
Yes, sir that is a well-done car. I would surmise that whoever did the work on the front end got a little sloppy with some assembly tasks. I myself have gotten into the habit of using Loctite Red on most fasteners along with proper torque procedures. Of course, the Loctite also serves as a thread lubricant. A lot of these You Tube videos the installers put things together with dry threads and I was always taught to lubricate the threads. A good friend of mine did that religiously. I would submit that an extreme pressure grease be applied to the threads of the ball joint tool as with use those threads get hot. Granted it can get kind of messy, but it may extend the life of the forcing screw. Like yourself I was impressed with the craftsmanship in the installation of the lines and fittings and was impressed with the fuel line connections and the heater hose connections. That kind of work does not come cheap. Again, my dad was always doing things like that. He especially was good at bending up lines with a tubing bender and doing proper flaring as well as any clamps on lines as well. He especially liked to plumb up fuel lines to look factory. My brother had the same trouble with an eighty-five Chevrolet truck, it seems as though the installer (a kid) did not torque up the lower ball joint nuts and the ball joint studs actually were wobbling around in the spindle. They were just to the point where the spindle bore was getting to the point of wallowing out and that would result in replacement of the spindle. I had to cut the ball joint studs out as the threads were so mangled I could not get the nuts off.🥸👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Torque specs are meant for dry installation. You will over torque with lubrication.
@Blanchy10 I thought ARP recommends thread lube when torquing..... wilwood specs red loctite and torquing to their spec
The devils in the details !!
@@kiwiclassicsandcustoms9160 If it specs that ok.
I did so many in the 80s and 90s with a section of fence pipe along with sledge or air chisel . Was finally able to afford the OTC kit mid 90s when GM stopped building cars with those weak ball joints . Used up a lot of chisels on the original uppers . I was lucky that my 77 Chevy van lost a lower backing into a parking spot as i had just come off the highway minutes before . There was big money in GM front ends back in those days due to the extreme geometry caused high wear rates on the Roger Smith cheapened parts .
Great car… too bad they didn’t find a Pontiac 400. Lol… call Dalton at pole barn garage he has a few lol
That's a disappointment on this car.
@saltyoperator7435 He might have some. I never heard him say they were for sale.
@@DarkFlamage lmao…. Wasn’t my point that you could buy from Dalton. It was a plug for my favorite boob tuber.
If anyone knows we’re to find a Pontiac 400 it’s Dalton @PBG
Thanks for playing though
Looks like a lot of money into the car! Speculation on losing a ball joint like that . . . hmmm? What makes metal fatigue like that? Could of been disaster! Nice job on replacing the piece!
Thats a cool ride, the builder really hated worm-drive clamps, i dont blame him so do I! haha.
usually when you have ball joint failure like that, there is also spindle damage as well. as a professional, I'm sure you checked the taper in the spindle to make sure there would be no failure in the future. great vid. Thanks
I was concerned that the taper may have been damaged. I visually inspected it and tested the new ball joint in spindle to check that it was grabbing into the spindle hole with just a small amount of pressure
Possibly a manufacturing defect on the ball joint, improper heat treating of the stud left it soft? A friend had improperly manufactured lug nuts on Cragar mags, all the threads pulled out and his front wheel left the car.
It would've been good to see the nut🤔
People put crap on the Ford Mustang suspension with the spring towers in the engine bay, but having the spring on top of the top control arm actually pushes the ball joint into its socket instead of this type of suspension which the spring pressure tries to pull the ball joint out of its socket, like this did.
I go with the Ford set up.
That's a beautiful looking Firebird👌
I love 69's
.....i do to....the one in this vid is a '68 ;)
@@ssnerd583 i know....thanks 😊
I suspect the nut wasnt tightened properly on the ball joint, and its loosened off enough to start flogging away at the threads , the owner perhaps couldn't hear , or ignored a slight clunking, allowing it enough time to fully work it's way off completely ( could it also maybe be Chinese crap? ). Oh by the way, the tri power manifold and carburetors I mentioned in your last live stream, for a 318 Chrysler poly engine, was manufactured by Edelbrock in the early to mid sixties, its an , " Edelbrock P600 " manifold, with x3 2 barrel 97 Stromberg carbs.
Ridetech use ProForm ball joints that are made in Canada. I quizzed Ridetech about the failure and if it was a "thing". They felt it was an installation error and recommended using ProForm replacements. That manifold would be cool !!!
@@kiwiclassicsandcustoms9160Iv'e heard those manifolds are very rare , but also that they do come up for sale every now and then.
Damn!!! You might ought to go over the whole car.
That's exactly what I did!!
Had this exact thing happen on a Toyota Hatchback back in my teens. On the interstate and the driver's side ball joint snapped which caused the other to fail and the wheel went half a mile further than we did. Sounded like an old woman screaming, then thud and scraping, and then realizing we were so lucky and stranded.
Kev too busy drinking all of your bourbon and playing Minecraft on the office computer to help you with that ball joint tool? Disgraceful.
That Firebird sure looks like a really nice build...actually a refreshing change from the bodge jobs that seem to find your shop on a semi-regular basis!
Yeah too many hot toddies now that winter is arriving😁. It is nice to get a nice in the door 😎😁👍
I've never been a fan of press in ball joints. Or any press in suspension component. I would much rather have a bolt on component. Much easier to change. And in my opinion, much safer and stronger
@The_R-n-I_Guy If the spindle stays bolted to it, the balljoint cannot come out.
Nice car. Yeah they were lucky. Nothing happened. It just dropped. I had an '05 Ford f150 and the front ball joint went lower ball joint broke right off. I was lucky that it just fell on the rim. I had steel rims on it so it didn't do anything to it but it could have been a lot worse. Scary feeling when you're going down the country roads. Good video. 👍👍🙂🇨🇦
The pickup truck when you just got on the road at 19:39 also seems to have had a ball joint failure.
I reckon you would have still been in NZ when we had a batch of crook HQ-HZ Holden lower ball joints, where the ball was pulling out of the joint. Same result. I do have a 12t press, and no ball joint tool, so yeah, arms come off for me. Those wheel studs were scary.
Would be nice to know who did the work on this car, it’s good to promote shops like yours and whoever did this car, could have been the owner, if so they really knew what they were doing 👍🇦🇺
Noicely done car, good eye on the studs.
Thanks man!!
Is that the OTC press set? I have that one and it's always performed well, but I get lost in the adapters sometimes. Borrowed a buddy's Snap-On press set once and it's actually a better design but with fewer pieces. Snap-On price too though! 😲
Seems odd to me as nice as everything else is why were the ball joints not replaced?
Hi kiwi, did you also check the rear wheel studs?
Rear studs are the press in splined type so don't have the same potential issues.
Good job,l would do both to , the joint on the inside of the road weres mostly because the inside of the road is rougher with potholes and the like
I'm surprised the customer didn't elect to do all 4. On a car that nice, I'd probably not want to take any chances.
Weird failure...maybe og installer cross threaded the ball joint stud?
It is a bit weird for sure !
Can be talked with the right tools with out having to pull apart
Mechanics these days see more and more Nylock nuts that some joints come with.
I would say that they could not get to the split pin to remove it and they just use power tools to remove the nut.
This would have galled up the threads.
Damaged the nut and ball joints threads.
The nut would have been put back on with no care and they were lucky not to have a catastrophic accident.
The damaged threads would not load the taper so I think there would have been a couple of knocks before she let go
That's a pretty solid theory!!! Makes sense🤔
Clear through to 78 those lower ball joints are worst! My ex actually tried drive it after it sucked!
Saw that union also,rewound it and I am pretty sure it was a flare with a flare union. Looks like they went from steel to nickel copper. Wouldnt swear to it. Sure Kiwi would have picked up on that stupidity.
It is a correct flare fitting. 😎👍
14:58 Kiwi I would think that the brake line resting on the exhaust like it shows would see a lot of heat and melt???
so why not replace the upper ball joints also if your doing both lowers to be cautious?
Is the e brake cable ok under the exhaust pipe?
Been there done that!😆
I don't like that compression fitting at 15:04.
Totally illegal in my opinion
Thats what it looks like ... I wasnt sure video moving fast. If its indeed a compression fitting its a no no.
It's not a compression fitting, it's a brake pipe union using double flare fittings. I agree with you on not using compression fittings, just not up to the kinda of line pressures you see on heavy braking!!
@@kiwiclassicsandcustoms9160 Ah ok, was hard to tell in the video. My VW jetta comes factory with those proper compression fittings up under the driver side floor , nothing wrong with those types of fittings.
I worry more about the top ball joint when the bottom goes, it been stressed and bent on when the lower went
Sorry Kiwi, I'm going to do a doctor who and say, I don't like it.
The standard is the cup sits on top of the ball not pull down on it.
Sorry, not sure what you mean...
At the 15:05 mark, is that a compression union I see in that line? 👀
It's not a compression fitting, it's a proper union for double flared brake lines. A couple of you guys have noticed that. 😎👍
@@kiwiclassicsandcustoms9160 Whew - good 👍
Definitely replace both ball joints
Not sure if , this is a result of ,
Erroneous / weak components
Especially , the way those threads
Just pulled through
I suspect the nut failed , as in the threads....
Ball joints seem to fail at low speed just after you've done highway speed. I think the load is greater at lower speed.
Tight slow turns exert a lot of load, way more than you'd think !!
is it a Dynacorn body?
Maybe the wheel stud issue caused the ball joint failure
Different sides of the car so I don't know that they're connected 🤷🏼♂️
✔️👌🏼
Maybe a bad suspension mod? Edit: now that I'm watching the whole video I'm of the opinion it was assembled by less-than-experienced people...
What makes you say that? I’d be interested in your feedback
@@jimamizzi1 I was only referring to the front end. The ride tech suspension and loose wheel studs gave me pause. I've driven cars for 40 years and never had a ball joint break. My thoughts leaned towards that front suspension geometry not being correct and put undo strain on those ball joints. The rest of the undercarriage looked very well done.
No those lower ball joints are known to pop like that, did on my camero!
@@kinzieconrad105The threads on this joint were stripped due to improper installation.
Didn’t damage the guard so that’s orright 😎press in ball joint? Hm yep ok? Factory bolted em for a reason?
They were pressed in from the factory, it's actually a 68 Camaro/ firebird ball joint that Ridetech use
Seeing this more and more lately with aftermarket tubular control arms. Cheap azz Chinese ball joints mixed with coil over suspension, big brakes and big sway bar. Sad to see even with name brand kits
Over torqued and Tennessee potholes will take them out
Smart to replace both sides, probably Chinese ball joints
Gravity was busy in this video.....
😂🤣yeah I was having a dropsy day....
Looks like the ball jount was not torqed down correctly and taper was never set on the steering knuckle and pulled through the nut and cotter pin.
Theres no way a properly fitting castelated nut would ever peel off . Must have been either cross threaded or the wrong thread size!
Some mustang driver sabotaged it ha ha ha what do you think kiwi 😂😂😂
PCV is on the wrong side of the engine, but other than that it is very nice under the hood.
What does it matter? It's not even the right engine for the car.
the original ball joints seemed sloppy. and aluminum hubs wouldn't be my choice.
Driver was very lucky, could have caused a lot of damage
Thanks for calling a split pin a split pin ,a cotter pin is something else different completely
Not something we used to see. It has to be defective hardware. Chinesium nuts I’m thinking.
Look. More stupid big rims....
I'll bet they ride rough as hell.
From my view it looks like it wasn’t tighten
You may be right!
First!
Nice!!
Maybe should of done upper ball joints..who knows
Bad installation
After watching the video I changed my opinion, now i believe bad installation.
Chinese A-arms and other cheap components. Poor quality crap
Ridetech make the suspension arms right here in America and the Pro-Form ball joints they use are made in Canada....
So much for fancy resto mod crap. Sometimes the original stuff is just better. I wonder if any of it is Chinese metal.