98 Frontier DIY Control Arms

--------------------------------------------- Originally posted by UnusualFabrication Upper balljoints are designed to be on uppers and lower balljoints are designed to be in the lowers thats how they are engineered.  Will it work, maybe.  Using the S-10 lower BJ for the upper did you have to retaper the spindles to fit them?  If so why not use S10 upper BJ's?  I am on board with Taylor on this one.  I could see the upper balljoint pulling out of the top of the cup,(mounted upside down in an upper arrangement) due to the fact that they were never designed to see a load pulling down on them only pushing down into the cup(mounted in a lower arm arrangement),  Hopefully that makes sence.

--------------------------------------------- Chris,   I did not have to retaper anything to get them to fit.  Actually what I did was take my spindle in the junk yard and walked around till I found a ball joint that would work.     Also, as stated before, these ball joints press in from the top and mount with the castle nut pointed down.  With that being said, if downward force is my main concern then it will be pulling itself tighter and tighter.     Billy 

--------------------------------------------- Originally posted by pugz MY CONCERN WITH THE UPPERS IS THA THE FACTORY UPPER ARMS THE BALLJOINT IS OFFSET ITS NOT CENTERED. IVE HAD TUBULARS MADE FOR MY OLD FRONTIER AND THEY ARE OFFSET...  HERES SOME PICS   WITH YOURS STRAIGHT YOULL NEVER BE ABLE TO GET IT ALIGNED. AND WILL MOST LIKELY SNAP TIERODS AND STUFF LIKE THAT  

 

 



--------------------------------------------- Jason,   If you look at the thread about the CanDo arms, they are not offset.  what I did was build a jig off my factory arms and that is how it turned out.  There is no offset on my factorys, therefore, no offset on the customs.  The only difference is my cup is angled to match the lowers.  On the CanDo arms the cup is zeroed out to match the custom lowers that goes with it.  I just turned my facotry lowers into A-arms to save some money.     The only thing I did not mention before is I am running drop spindles in this equation if anyone is wondering.     Billy 

---------------------------------------------Originally posted by fxCUSTUMZ---------------------------------------------Originally posted by UnusualFabricationUpper balljoints are designed to be on uppers and lower balljoints are designed to be in the lowers thats how they are engineered.  Will it work, maybe.  Using the S-10 lower BJ for the upper did you have to retaper the spindles to fit them?  If so why not use S10 upper BJ's?  I am on board with Taylor on this one.  I could see the upper balljoint pulling out of the top of the cup,(mounted upside down in an upper arrangement) due to the fact that they were never designed to see a load pulling down on them only pushing down into the cup(mounted in a lower arm arrangement),  Hopefully that makes sence.

---------------------------------------------Chris, I did not have to retaper anything to get them to fit.  Actually what I did was take my spindle in the junk yard and walked around till I found a ball joint that would work.   Also, as stated before, these ball joints press in from the top and mount with the castle nut pointed down.  With that being said, if downward force is my main concern then it will be pulling itself tighter and tighter.   Billy ---------------------------------------------But when its mounted in the lower and pressed in from the bottom the splines merely hold it in place and the BJ ledge rests on the machined cup ledge.  So the press isn't holding the weight of the BJ the weight is on the ledge of the BJ all the way around the machined cup.  Now mounted upside down the and pressed in from the top there is no machined cup  ledge for the BJ ledge to rest on and hold the weight of the truck.  It could be pushed out of the top of the cup from the bottom by movement in the suspension, vibrations, and ever else.

Edited: 5/20/2009 7:05:40 PM by Ice

    also  ,  just to make note....      your upper bag gussets needs to be more vertical ...    those mounts will bend  with the gussets like that...just put the gussets on top.. work looks good man!

---------------------------------------------Originally posted by UnusualFabrication---------------------------------------------Originally posted by fxCUSTUMZ---------------------------------------------Originally posted by UnusualFabricationUpper balljoints are designed to be on uppers and lower balljoints are designed to be in the lowers thats how they are engineered.  Will it work, maybe.  Using the S-10 lower BJ for the upper did you have to retaper the spindles to fit them?  If so why not use S10 upper BJ's?  I am on board with Taylor on this one.  I could see the upper balljoint pulling out of the top of the cup,(mounted upside down in an upper arrangement) due to the fact that they were never designed to see a load pulling down on them only pushing down into the cup(mounted in a lower arm arrangement),  Hopefully that makes sence.

---------------------------------------------Chris, I did not have to retaper anything to get them to fit.  Actually what I did was take my spindle in the junk yard and walked around till I found a ball joint that would work.   Also, as stated before, these ball joints press in from the top and mount with the castle nut pointed down.  With that being said, if downward force is my main concern then it will be pulling itself tighter and tighter.   Billy ---------------------------------------------But when its mounted in the lower and pressed in from the bottom the splines merely hold it in place and the BJ ledge rests on the machined cup ledge.  So the press isn't holding the weight of the BJ the weight is on the ledge of the BJ all the way around the machined cup.  Now mounted upside down the and pressed in from the top there is no machined cup  ledge for the BJ ledge to rest on and hold the weight of the truck.  It could be pushed out of the top of the cup from the bottom by movement in the suspension, vibrations, and ever else.--------------------------------------------- i dif agree with him on that.....   

There is a top gusset on those bag brackets.  You just cant see them in those pics.  I will post more later.   Thanks Ice!   I am confident that my arms will work.  I hear what you all are saying but to be real, My factory upper ball joints press in from the top just like the ones I put in.  The only difference is they now come from an S-10.  Either way, this is my shop truck and will be driven every day so I definately put alot of thought into this.      

my control arms were built off a direct jig off my stock arms. maybe the 03 is different than the 98 im jsut showing my example. and i had belltech spindles on mine too. as u can see on my arms i had s10 performance balljoints too.

can you post a picture of your stock balljoint.  Ive searched and searched for an upper balljoint that was engineered to be pressed in from the top, and ive never seen on before.   Im really curious to see what it looks like.  If you look at any other balljoint out thare, you will see that the ledge is on the top of the arm, and it holds the balljoint in place.  If you look at upper spherical bearing control arms, the ledge that is a solid mount, is on the top, and the snap ring is on the bottom, so that the bearing cant just push through.  Good luck with everything, and if you can please post a pic of those balljoints.   Taylor

fxcustoms, no your top joints were not pressed in, they had a retaining clip on them to distribute the force.

Actually they are pressed in with retaining clips.  I just checked my factorys again.  My guys had them in the scrap pile.  I am glad I went and looked for them.  Definately need them around for templates.     Anyways, Happy Memorial Day to everyone, especially the Vets.     Billy