ball joint replacement

On my '72 cj5, I'm replacing the ball joints. Although the upper ball joint looks like it is seated all the way in, the snap ring will not go on. It looks like there is just not enough space for it to slide into the groove. I tried pressing it again but -- like I said -- it looks like it is seated all the way.

Do I just keep pressing and hoping for a better outcome or should I just forget about the snap ring? I certainly don't want the ball joint to loosen up but they seemed pretty tight in there when I removed the old ones and it is hard for me to believe that they would loosen on the road.

 

Some vehicles do not use the snap rings and the knuckle is not machined for clearance for the snap ring. I suspect yours is not if the ball joint is fully seated and you still can't get the snap ring on. In other words, forget the snap ring.

 

Thnaks guys. Seems like, if there were enough pressure to push a ball joint loose, the little snap ring isn't going to help much.

By the way, I put Dana 44s from a '78 Scout under the Jeep. So it's not the standard Dana 30 front end -- although not much different as far as ball joints go.

 

Ball joints are the same for these two applications.

 

I'm looking to do the same, put a scout dana 44 in the front keeping the knukkle of my dana 30. What mod did you do on the scout??? can you put some pic somewhere i could give me idea

 

I had to "outboard" the frame of the CJ5 to get the front spring perches to fit (on the back, I just cut off and moved the spring perches to fit the CJ's smaller frame, but on the front that's not possible because of the bigger Dana 44 housing). I used 3/16th angle iron and 3/16 steel plates. I took some grade 8 bolts to put the angle iron on the side of the frame, then welded all the edges. I put a 4-inch by 4-inch plate under the frame and the angle iron, bolted it on, then welded the edges of that. That gave me a very solid base for the perches. I used some thin steel gussets I had laying around but I don't know that they are going to help too much. I might add some heavier gussets later if it looks like the angle iron isn't stong enough. I suspect, however, that the angle iron and steel plate is already sturdier than the thin metal frame of my Jeep. In any case, it will be an easy place to check now and then for problems.

On the front Scout axle, I cut away at the yokes and rotated them so I got 5 degrees of castor. I used an angle-finding dial, then tack welded the yokes. My welding skills are not the best (and I only had access to a mig welder) so I took the axle to a professional who tig welded the yokes in place for me.

I kept the Scout brakes. My '72 previously had drums on the front and I wanted disc.

Not sure how this is going to work out, but the CJ5 steering knuckles protrude about 6 1/2 inches from the ball joint to the tie rod end. The Scout had two holes, one 7 inches out and one 8 1/2 inches out. I cut off the outer portion of the knuckle and will use the shorter hole for the tie rod. I bought a heavy duty tie-rod/drag link mechanism from a later model Wrangler and will use this. We'll see if the steering specs are tolerable when I get it all back together.

I'll try to add pics later.

This is a pretty common swap and I'm sure you'll find plenty of Website with a step-by-step better than this post.

 

For myself what i'm gonna do is to cut the driver side tube by 4 inch so it will have the good lenght to fit under the oem spring anchor. I will replace the inner axle shaft by a ford bronco 71-77 axle shaft (the longest one).

I will also like you did change the caster angle.

Why did you put only 5 degree?
Because you could give a bettre angle to the drive shaft and at the same moment give an extra protection to it...

 

I asked around quite a bit and 5 degrees seemed to be the consensus. If it turns out I don't have enough castor, I can always add shims to the perches.