My wonky ball joint tool

[94touring]

I've never bought the appropriate wrench that fit our ball joints. I do have a large socket that I believe is used on the hubs for my bus.  Instead of using vice grips or a large pliers and struggling, I opted to use this socket. The problem is the stud of the ball joint sticks up and you can't get a ratchet on it.  *Wheel out the welder.  Welded a grade 8 stud onto the socket to stick a breaker bar onto it and voilà. 

[Willie_B]

That will work but how do you torque it?

[94touring]

That will work but how do you torque it?

I've never actually set a torque value to a ball joint. Just set them good and tight and then knock the locking plate over the face to keep it from moving. 

[MiniDave]

I have a large 1 1/2" wrench as well as the deep well socket. Northern Tool has the sockets for reasonable $$$, I think I paid less than $10 for mine.

I also just tighten them "gutentite", then bend over the lock tabs in a couple of places. I've never the nut loosen up.

[94touring]

Another thing worth noting. I noticed on these ball joints, compared to others in my stash of older parts, is they are more pointy on the ball end.  The reason for me removing this particular ball joint was noticeable slop / up and down play.  Considering it only has maybe 750 miles on it, I wonder if the pointy-ness of the ball has something to do with that.  I only had to remove the slimmest of shims and the friction and play on the ball joint was back within spec, which is moves with a little friction by hand with a glove on. I'll just have to keep an eye on them and see.  Japan mini has some regular ball joints that are high quality like mini would have had from the factory which are NLA.  They also have those pricier no shimming required ball joints.  If these continue to wear abnormally, I may end up buying a set of those. 

[MiniDave]

I'm planning to run those on my hot rod for sure......the no maintenance ones that is.