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not factory spindle and having ball joint issues

1K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  bbqrat 
#1 ·
I have a 65 nova wagon with powered disc brakes in the front and drum in the rear. This is the way I purchased the car and have been happy with the stopping. I have been noticing a lot of noises ( creeking, clanking, squeeking) coming from the front right corner over bumps, turning... I got polyurethane bushings for the front arms, struts, new ball joints and spring perches... I had parts from a 63 so I blasted and painted and then fitted those parts with the new gear. I went to assemble the car today and noticed that the spindle for the lower ball joint has a metal reducer like pipe in the hole and it sits extremely low on the ball joint where the castle nut is completely below the hole for the cotter pin. I started looking at my 66 el camino that has some wilwoods and I also have a old set of camaro disc brakes and it is the same spindle that the camaro is. It has a larger hole than the factory drum spindle and the lower ball joint does not fit... I know this is ghetto rigged and need to fix it cause I wont put it together like that. Does anyone know if there is a solution besides buying a new brake kit??? Maybe a larger shafted ball joint? different spindles? Anything would be awsome cause it is my daily driver so I am without a ride..

thanks

seth
 
#2 ·
Before the aftermarket made all of the disc brake conversions for us the popular thing was to use a chevelle spindle to get the disc brakes. When doing this a chevelle balljoint had to be mated to the lower control arm because the balljoint shaft was bigger. I have seen these balljoints welded to the stock nova arm.............not good they tend to go bad. If you are going to want to use the original arms that you have cleaned up you will have to figure out how to either reduce the spindle taper or connect the larger balljoint to the original arm. Or get the correct spindles for the car.

FYI: if you installed the polyurethane bushings for the strut rods be aware that the arms need to pivot in the bushing area and if the more solid bushing does not flex than the pivot motion will be absorbed by the arm thus causing it to bend back and forth untill it breaks.
 
#3 ·
Ball joint

There are vendors selling disc kits for 67-74 Novas, they use a big hole lower ball joint spindle..I got caught with 2 sets for 1 gen swaps...sold them locally to 68 and up owners... the 62- 67 uses a small lower ball joint post..the spindle has to ride up on the post, not down flush...
 
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