Home » Public Forums » GMCnet » Re: [GMCnet] Check your Lower A arm ball joint
Re: [GMCnet] Check your Lower A arm ball joint [message #322048 is a reply to message #322044] |
Sun, 13 August 2017 23:27 |
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USAussie
Messages: 15912 Registered: July 2007 Location: Sydney, Australia
Karma:
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Senior Member |
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Rick,
You weighed up your situation and decided installing the one ton was best for you. I weighed up my situation and decided upgrading
the OEM suspension was best for me.
And that's that. :-)
Regards,
Rob M.
Sydney, Australia
AUS '75 Avion - The Blue Streak TZE365V100428
USA '75 Avion - Double Trouble TZE365V100426
USA '77 Kingsley - TZE 267V100808
-----Original Message-----
From: Gmclist [mailto:gmclist-bounces@list.gmcnet.org] On Behalf Of Richard Denney
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2017 1:27 PM
To: gmclist@list.gmcnet.org
Subject: Re: [GMCnet] Check your Lower A arm ball joint
Rob,
Very few of the things you describe are easy to do, even for someone with mechanical skills, and having them done costs very much
more than the one-ton kit. Strengthened lower control arms and bushings alone, considering the unreturnability of my cores, costs
more than the one-ton kit, and that doesn't include ball joints, knuckles, hubs, rotors, and halfshafts that come with the kit. And
all of those on my coach also have
over 100,000 miles on them. Replacing all that with rebuilt original stuff costs about $3K just for parts, and the labor is greater
than with the one-ton kit.
Photos of what Steve Ferguson does to strengthen '73 lower control arms just make me realize how much I need to replace them. The
pictures don't provide much guidance--I'm not going to be cutting and welding them. That would NOT make me feel safer. :)
I've heard Dave's talks several times, and I know it's possible to get good service from the stock bearings, if everything is kept
perfect. Making it perfect in the first place is the tricky bit, and it usually requires using
knuckles and hubs that have been spray-welded back to original size. When I bought a knuckle from him (in 2008), one that had a zerk
installed wasn't available. And then the spacer still has to have grooves cut in it to pass injected grease. And I still worry about
the knuckle I didn't replace. I certainly didn't have time to drill for zerks--I barely had time to get the project done as it was,
and still park next to you in Delaware. I had not
known it had failed and discovered it when I was removing it to replace a CV boot.
There have been lots of vehicles that have camber that varies with suspension travel, including the old Ford twin I-beam suspension.
Those weren't great--they have faults common to all swing axles--but they also weren't race cars. And they were serviceable. Camber
increasing with jounce isn't really such a terrible thing for vehicles the understeer severely as we hope a GMC will do. A few have
the skills to notice a difference, though it's hard to compare unless one is willing to take the coach to the limit of adhesion. The
vast majority of people only notice an improvement, maybe because they restored their coach to a state of good repair for the first
time in their experience.
And then there's the 12" brakes.
Rick "for whom time is even more elusive than money" Denney
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Regards,
Rob M. (USAussie)
The Pedantic Mechanic
Sydney, Australia
'75 Avion - AUS - The Blue Streak TZE365V100428
'75 Avion - USA - Double Trouble TZE365V100426
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