Chrysler lower ball joint alternative

[jvo]

Okay, I have been pondering this for quite some time.  Going to take the grandkids skiing this weekend, and posting this for input so I can go ahead and weld the sleeves into the lower a arms next week.  Going ahead with this unless someone give me some really good reasons not to.
Pretty much all the Mustang II suspension I have seen have the Chrysler ball joints in them, with the weld in sleeves.  Chrysler and Ford use a lot of 7 degree taper ball joints.  Seeing as how the only alternative I could find was made in "wherever" reproduction lower ball joints, I decided to do this swap.
First off, I removed the original ball joint, and looked at the hole.  Damned if the hole didn't look identical in size to the "small Chrysler sleeve".   I used a rotary sander to clean the burrs off the inside of the hole and the SMALL sleeve slipped right in.  I thought, this is going to be easy.  Turns out the ball joints I had bought needed the large sleeve.  Oh well, the sleeves are only about 10 bucks each from Speedway. 
I ordered 4 large sleeves from Speedway, two for my new installation, and two to fit the McQuay Norris ball joints, in case I ever find a use for them.
So, for the first instalment, I will show what I bought on ebay, and what NOT to buy.
I bought some real nice McQuay Norris extreme duty screw in ball joints with the 7 degree taper, and the taper turned out to be too small.  I got them quite cheap on ebay, so it wasn't a real big deal.  Turns out they needed the large Chrysler sleeve, and the taper was too small.  If I had been paying attention, Speedway, in their own screw in ball joint ads, shows the small and large taper sizes of the Chrysler ball joints.  I measured my 79 T bird spindles, that I got from the local wrecking yard, and the ball joint tapers in the Ford spindles were just slightly smaller than the ball joint tapers.
So, I did a search for a taper reamer.  Speedway sells one on their website that is the proper 1.5 inch per foot, 7 point something taper, and the cost is about 80 bucks.  It is made "who knows where".  I found this X cut taper on ebay for 84 bucks, I think, with free shipping, and it is made in America, according to their website and made of absolute top quality tool steel, and you can send it back to them for sharpening if you ever need to.  I decided to support them.
I can only attach 4 pics per post, so that is enough for segment one.

[jvo]

Now, in the first post, you can see in the pics that the McQuay Norris FA-397E ball joint tapers are too small for my spindles, and the 910-34812 ball joint sleeve that fits the 57 Ford lower a arm perfectly, is also too small for the threaded end of the ball joint. Thus, I am saying I bought these parts in error.  Do not make my mistake.
By the time I am done, even with buying the wrong parts, I will still be quite a few dollars ahead, as buying the new Moog ball joints that I bought for 39 bucks for two of them, will still be far less than buying these parts locally.  Whatever.  That is useless information.  Just make sure you buy the right parts if you choose to do this.
You can see in this first photo how the small Chrysler ball joint sleeve fits perfectly in the 57 Ford lower a arm.  Oh well, you can see the larger ball joint sleeve from Speedway that is part number 910-34816 is the one I need, and I will need to enlarge the hole in my a arm slightly so it will fit, then weld it in place.  This will be the biggest conundrum in this swap, is to make sure I get this sleeve welded in at the proper height to match the original ball joint height in the lower a arm.
You can see in the one pic, in the post above, how the McQuay Norris small taper does not fit the spindle.  In another pic, you will see a ball joint I purchased from Speedway, that is another of those "made in wherever" parts, and it was only about 17 bucks.  I bought that one solely for the purpose of cutting apart to make it into a "tap" of sorts. 
I didn't know how the fit was of these ball joint sleeve threads before I got them, so I searched for a tap to run through the threads after they are welded in place, as we all know there will probably be some shrinkage from the heat of welding them in place, and the new ball joints might not screw into the sleeves.  Turns out, the fit is pretty sloppy.  Not sure if that is planned or just crappy production, but with a lot of luck, the shrinkage might be just what the doctor ordered to tighten up the screw in ball joint fit.  If it is a little tight, I will take the cheap ball joint, and make a couple of cross cuts vertically to the threads, and try to use it as a tap.  Don't have any idea yet if that will work, but the threads on these things aren't really like real bolt threads.  Sort of a weird flat thread, you have to see it to see what I mean, unless you've dealt with these already.
I could use a little input on that, if anyone has welded these into a hot rod or a stock car.  Someone must have done it, they are used everywhere.
Forgot to add, in the two lower pics, you can see that the spindle needs to be reamed slightly so as to align the cotter pin hole with the corresponding notch in the castle nut. Both the Moog ball joint and the Speedway ball joint are pretty much the same in this regard.

[jvo]

You can see in the previous pics, that the spindle needs to be reamed slightly.  As I stated earlier, on Speedway's site, they have the ball joint taper sizes listed and what they stated turned out to be pretty much bang on to what you see in this pic.  The Chrysler K727 ball joints are just slightly larger than the Ford spindle taper here. 
In these pics, you can see the taper reamer I bought, hopefully the parts number is legible.
Also, you can see the larger sleeve in the lower a arm needs a slightly larger hole to fit.  There isn't a big difference.  I think on Speedway's site, they also have the dimensions of both the 910-34812 small sleeve that is too small, as well as the larger 94-34816 sleeve that I needed to fit the K727 ball joint. 
There is also a pic of a Mac impact socket I bought on ebay for 29 bucks that fits the large ball joint ends. 

[jvo]

The shot of the ball joint here is the cheaper version I bought from Speedway of the Chrysler K727 ball joint copy. 
I haven't reamed the spindles yet. 
As I stated when beginning, I will probably go ahead with this conversion regardless.  I have a second set of lower a arms in case I need to turn around, but I doubt that will happen, unless there is something I have totally missed in my research and planning. This is simple hot rodding, and these screw in ball joints are used all over in our hobby, as well as stock car racing.  I think this should be fairly straightforward.
I just need to make sure I weld the sleeves in at the proper height.  Other than that, I can't think of anything else that might cause problems.  Throwing this out there now. What do you think?

[pepfalcon]

excellent article, with photos to show installation, good idea on the screw in ball joints. thanks

[Hoosier Hurricane]

It's too late for you to turn back now, I suppose, but I found that with a little grinding on the flange of the ball joint and in the hole in the A arm that the '65 and later Ford lower ball joint will bolt into the '57 A arm and fit the taper of the spindle hole.  May have to slot the two bolt holes also, it's been too long ago for me to remember the exact details.   John

[Zapato]

John, are you talking about the MOOG K8059 ball joint used on 65up Galaxies ?

Zap-

[jvo]

Whoa, I didn't know about the 65 Galaxie lower ball joint.  Oh well, this is almost a done deal now.

[Hoosier Hurricane]

Zap:

I don't know about the Moog number, NAPA is 260-1075.  For '65-'72 full size Ford.

John

[JPotter57]

I may try the 65 balljoint, as I can't find any source for any quality earlier parts, moog or otherwise.  Thanks for the good info, John.

[SkylinerRon]

Are we saying there is not a quality lower 57-64 balljoint available any longer?
I haven't bought any balljoints in a number of years.

Ron.

[Zapato]

Are we saying there is not a quality lower 57-64 balljoint available any longer?

I'd like to know the answer to that myself.

Zap-

[jvo]

I am running under the assumption that everything that is made offshore, as in, comes without a decent brand name attached to it, is possibly junk.  I have a good friend that just put ball joints in his 61 chevy pickup, and bought what he assumed was good brand name stuff and it was still junk.  I would just rather find some NOS parts.  I am very very put off by parts and tools that are made overseas nowadays.  That goes for bolt quality also.  Don't get me started on that subject. 
So, okay, yes, I was running on an assumption. 

[RICH MUISE]

TTT
Before this thread dies, does anybody have a source for quality usa made '57 ball joints?

[dgasman]

Yes, rare parts makes the  lower ball joints in california . They are very heavy duty but they are not cheep . The best place to buy them from is amazon. I have two sets that I bought from amazon and they are built like little tanks...

There is a pic of the ball joint in the steering and suspension section under lower ball joint alternitive.