it happen on one side only (pass)
the hub was very rusted from the scrap yard
the ball joint only have 150 km (highway trip)




can you tell me what it happen ?



Location: Montreal, Quebec

I have no idea what could affect both the top and bottom or either one for that matter. Tire rub? Geez
Are the joints all loose like they've been worn out? Or is it just the boots? Too much lube in the boot?

just looks like the boot exploded, probably wasn't tight enough and a little loss, so everytime you turned it deflected a little bit.

Replace it and try again. Either a freak acident or something got in there, really no other cause I can see for it.


-Chris

every bolt was tight enough

I forgot to write I had the abs and ets off light on too



Location: Montreal, Quebec

mcmoney wrote:can you tell me what it happen ?

They broke.

That's strang to have both go at the same time. Mine all still look fine. Haven't had any problems with the suspension since I did the swap.

I found it

The n-body knuckle and ball joint don't like to be dropped
and on a crappy road the ball joint will hit the knuckle and squeeze
the rubber boot. Same thing for the tie rod end.



you can see the mark of the ball joint on the knuckle here





Location: Montreal, Quebec

How low are you?

damn, makes me want to check mine.....




SPD RCR Z - '02 Z24 420whp
SLO GOAT - '04 GTO 305whp
W41 BOI - '78 Buick Opel Isuzu W41 Swap

That doesn't look right. Mine don't sit that close. Are you sure you got the correct N-Body ball joints?

Did you leave the holes in the same location or move them inboard? If they are in the OEM N-body location could it be a bind thing as the holes are further out then the J-body configuration, changing the way the knuckle sits on the control arm?

on second thought, if using the N body lower A arms, which move the wheel out, this would effectivly cause camber to the front correct? As we are moving the lower mounting portion outwards but not moving the upper portion (strut mount) out to compensate. I would imagine then that the wheels become camberd (top of tire closer to center of car compared to the bottom) . While this will only havce an affect on tire handling and wear, maybe there are other side effects as noted above. I wonder if camber plates would help solve this.


farmerz24

this is why i'm worried about doing the swap. i'm quite low and this could be an issue...


1998 Chevrolet Cavalier
5-spd

farmerz24 wrote:on second thought, if using the N body lower A arms, which move the wheel out, this would effectivly cause camber to the front correct? As we are moving the lower mounting portion outwards but not moving the upper portion (strut mount) out to compensate. I would imagine then that the wheels become camberd (top of tire closer to center of car compared to the bottom) . While this will only havce an affect on tire handling and wear, maybe there are other side effects as noted above. I wonder if camber plates would help solve this.

Swapping N-Body control arms requires the arms to be shortened. It's possible that good camber plates would allow you to correct the camber, but your wheels would have to have a higher offset to keep under the fenders. Shortening the arms the 1/2" to work properly isn't a very big task. Also, mcmoney didn't use the N-body arms, so this had nothing to do with his problem. I'm seriously wondering about the part number on the ball joints being right, because my N-body spindles do not sit that low on the joints.

the reason why i want the a arms farther out is increased stance and ability to fit a bigger tire. i guess that would mean i could also just buy a wheel with offset that allows it to stick out that extra half inch.

plus then with the n body rear swap and stock width front end the track on front and rear wouldnt be the same....

maybe if the ball joint is not correct than the nbody spindle will fall down into it and crack the boot.

interesting, so you think he has j body ball joints and not n-body?




farmerz24

farmerz24 wrote:...interesting, so you think he has j body ball joints and not n-body?

It really is looking that way. There is zero room there for the boot. I have about 5/8-3/4 of an inch clearance between the control arm and the spindle. Those pictures show almost no clearance.
Also, the n-body boot looks kind of like an hour glass. The torn boot seen there does not have the inversed cone at the top. Maybe he'll pop in here and clear things up. I'd be curious to know if he solved the problem.

First it's not a "J" ball joint, the "J" ball joint is way too small and you cant tight it on the "N" knuckle
What you see on the picture is my jack under the ball joint to collapse the strut to see how much clearance i have



Location: Montreal, Quebec

Must have wrong ball joints, cause mine have never had problems and I got the cheapest ones I could find on eBay. The stock tie rod end blew a boot though. Aftermarket boots seem to fix the problem though (different design).

mcmoney wrote:First it's not a "J" ball joint, the "J" ball joint is way too small and you cant tight it on the "N" knuckle
What you see on the picture is my jack under the ball joint to collapse the strut to see how much clearance i have

I wasn't 100% sure, but I was thinking that you wouldn't have been able to tighten down the J-body ball joint in the N-body hub, but I hadn't tried it. How has yours been? Have you fixed the problem?

There was some moron listing ball joints on Ebay, who insisted to me that the N-body and J-body ball joints were the same from 97+. I know that's not true... but he refused to listen to reason.

I suspect there's some oddball ball joints (!) out there... those look way closer than the swap I helped with.... and much, much tighter than the 99 Grand Am I just pulled....

Ball joints are the same 92-98 N body and 95-05 J body. This uses the 99+ N body and they are different. Just to clear up any confusion.

in my setup, my ball joints wedge into the spindle tight before they bottom out, unlike in the pics above where they are bottomed out....





SPD RCR Z - '02 Z24 420whp
SLO GOAT - '04 GTO 305whp
W41 BOI - '78 Buick Opel Isuzu W41 Swap