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The Story of my bad balljoint w/ pix

3375 Views 17 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  00Frontier4cyl
6
Bad Balljoints and UCAs w/ pix

So here is the story of my suspension adventures.

It all started with a clunky balljoint which made a clunk sound when I hit a bump.
Here is my truck as I bought it about a year ago with fabtech uca's, aftermarket shocks, and slight larger (30x9.5/15) tires.



The balljoint did not clunk when I bought it, but this is what caused it to clunk.



As you can see the boot is torn, and the camber was off by atleast +1 degree.

So what am I to do? My alignment was off so I decided to order some new stock control arms off an internet parts website. (autopartswholesale.com I believe) They said it fit my truck, sweet only 300$ for both.
I got them shortly after and took the fabtechs off and put the ones I got on.

This is what happened.




Uh ohh camber is way off now :(
Aparently I got v6 4x4 uppers I believe, (part# 54525-8B550)
So what do I do? Take those off of course.
So I get them off, this is all in the course of the same day and I was pretty frustrated.
I read the return policy on the website and if you read it you will see, its a PITA.
You have to fill out a form, which I did, and they send you an email saying it will be looked at (which I got)
Then you are supposed to wait like 30 days for it to be reviewed, 30 days to have it processed blah blah blah
so I opt to screw that and buy some new balljoints for the fabtechs and be done with it.

I called up Fabtech to see what balljoints are in them, and they say all of my year nissan arms had hardbody balljoints.
So a trip to Napa and 60$ later I got them. (lucky they had them in stock) I have the part # on the balljoints somewhere too in case I need more.



So I still have to get my alignment closer in spec right? Well I talked to a guy via e-mail who
was interested in my arms on craigslist and he said he needed longer control arms because he had too much
negative camber from his lift. (I know we will chat soon I hope again because you are a member here) So what I do
is research how to lift my truck on where else, ClubFrontier.
So I crank my torsion bars up about 8 turns each which gave me I believe 2" of lift.



This is where I sit now, I have not had an alignment done as of yet. I'm probably going to
crank the bars up another 4 turns, I think I still have room on my bump stops
and If I dont I can cut them.
I'm planning on some new (probably smaller) tires and then having an alignment done to
see if Im any more in spec than before.


Any questions, comments, and discussions are welcomed.
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1 - 5 of 18 Posts
kinda ot.. what gear ratio do u have, and how's the acceleration with the 30" tires?
Yeah I figured I still had a little more room to lift, I mean I have atleast an inch and a half of thread left on the adjustor bolt. Thanks

And the 30s have got me into some trouble actually, because I didn't know my speedo was off when I bought the truck and got a speeding ticket. I got the speedo checked on a dyno and its showing a 9.5%ish error at 60 mph, so actually speed was near 67. (Got ticketed for 67 in a 55).
As far as acceleration, I havnt known anything else so it is hard to judge. Going up a steep incline I max out at like 60-65 with the pedal on the floor.
Thats why I plan to go to smaller tires because I need new ones anyway.

Edit: Soo stock gear ratio?
you probably have the same gear ratio as me.. a 370.. u can look at your ds door jam, and look at the nissan label. it should say something like hf37 or hg49
c200 with a 4.3 gear ratio? nice! i have a 3.70 gear ratio and my truck bogs with with 235/75/15 tires. i have always wanted 30" tyres.. :/
lol i want cool tires.. if end up keeping the truck, ill have to look for an axle like yours. also does fabtech still make those control arms?
cool deal! i whore the IE/OC/LA/SD craigslist fs sections, and i've never come across some arms like yours.
1 - 5 of 18 Posts
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