welding spindles

I know this was brought up in another discussion. But is it better to cut off a balljoint tab on a spindle and flip it over and weld it back on or weld it up and redrill the hole?

Imma research this a bunch before I do it

Are you trying to make a ball joint enter the spindle in the opposite direction? IE, the ball joint now faces the ground but you want it to point up instead? If so, I would just bore out the spindle until its straight, and get a tapered adapter made to fit in the hole. Much safer than cutting a structural part of the spindle off and reattaching it.

Im just thinking on the possibility of doing some Mazda spindles to start with. I have drilled some from the bottom but im looking for a better solution. what welding process would be needed to do this? can I drill the hole out and weld in a tapered spacer?

Originally posted by stumbledin

can I drill the hole out and weld in a tapered spacer?

Thats what I just said to do.

I think Ill try it with a piece of 1" thick cold rolled.

I was thinkin you were saying to get a spacer that fits into a tapered hole that was itself also tapered. Ive seen those but they wont help on the Mazda as you know.. anyway I see that alot of newer vehicles use the lower balljoint pointing down style of mounting.

Oh, ya they do make those for certain applications. I meant a straight hole in the spindled with a tapered bung. I've done it to flip tie rods around.

I wouldn't recommend this. The stock balljoint was engineered to go in and carry the load from the top not upside down.

I would assume that most ball joints could work either way? It doesn't make sense to me that it would be weaker pointing one way than the other, since it is a ball and socket. I also don't really understand why it needs to be done. All I know is welding in a bung is probably safer for the average guy than actually cutting parts off the spindle and putting them back on.

You might be right Seth but I thought I read somewhere that certain balljoints were to be used in compression and some in tension but I could be wrong. Sounds like he wants to make some kind of tube arms using the stock spindles and balljoints but since Mazda balljoints go in from the top he wants to flip them over to get some more room. Unfortunately I think thats going to mess up the suspension geometry. Also, isn't this one of Mike Whites other screen names?