Where can I get new steering knuckles without having to get a 2nd mortgage? Maybe there is an alternative to the problem than having to replace the knuckle. The axle is of course the original that came with the truck.

I was replacing the ball joints this weekend and now I'm at a stand still. The upper ball joint goes in too far into the knuckle, leaving me to believe the top hole has been enlarged somehow. The bottom one seems to be fine, but the top one actually goes in far enough that the castle nut bottoms out on it, and the cotter pin hole in the stud is a good 2 threads below the castle nut. It's as if the tapered stud on the ball joint is just slightly too narrow to be a tight fit. I double checked at Autozone with one of there upper ball joints and it fits exactly the same way the MOOG one I installed does.

IF the problem is the steering knuckle, then is there an aftermarket one that I can buy, or do I need to go to the dealer for a new one? Is there some ingenious way to make the knuckle I have now work correctly? I don't like cheaping out on parts, but when I'm seeing over $600 to $800 EACH from the dealer online for new knuckles, I'm looking for other avenues to get the job done right, and at a lesser drain on my budget. PLEASE... any help will be greatly appreciated!!! I'll check back later to see what you guys have for me.

 

Why not try and see is the ball joint for a 2500 or 3500 is larger and will make up the difference in that hole? You could also try a Chevy or Ford ball joint (blasphemy I know) and see if that will work.

 

I have a hard time believing you ob-longed the hole that bad (or even at all)... but who knows. I WOULD say check another ball joint, but you already have.

Sorry man, I really don't have any suggestions for you. But, I still say the hole is not worn out... something else must be going on (just cant think of what it might be).

How did the old ball joint come out? Did it fit really loose and fall out, or did you have to press it out? Do you still have the old ball joint you took out, and if so is the new one the exact same shape?

 

Thank you Ram15002ndGen for the suggestions. I'll be looking into that and see if any of those work. I'll let you know what I find out.

olyelr, the old stud actually came out of the ball joint as I was removing the knuckle and stayed in the knuckle. I then hit the stud once with a hammer and it popped right out of the knuckle. The new ball joint is the same shape as the old one. It slides right in the knuckle by hand, and as it reaches the point when it is seated but not forced in, it is already at the point that a cotter pin won't do any good. It is, of course, worse after trying to bolt it in tight. The funny thing is, the old ball joint stud that came out of it now sits the same way when fitting it into the hole! I really don't understand how this has happened. The only thing I can think of is maybe the person who owned this truck before me replaced this joint and used some kind of hardening filler in the hole as he installed it to keep it in place, but I don't know of anything like that he could've gotten to work even for a short time in that application. I did encounter a little bit of build up of dirt or dried grease, or ??? that I cleaned out of the hole. I do know that the castle nut was easy to loosen when I first removed it. I found that a little strange. I've also looked closely at the hole as the stud gets seated and it appears to be perfectly round. I'm going to look into the previous suggestions and see if I find something that will work. Plan "B" will be to start calling around to local salvage yards and see if I can get a used knuckle in good condition. I would rather buy new, but not for several hundred dollars each! I don't believe in going cheap on my truck since I rely on it so much, but there comes a point when it gets rediculous. I feel these knuckles are a prime example. If I were going to abuse the truck offroad, I would be looking into swapping the entire axle to a stronger and better suited one like a Dana 60, and any necessary changes to the steering for it. I do have a pile of steering parts from Rock Auto that are waiting to be installed once I get this knuckle situation resolved. They are the parts mentioned in the 1 ton steering upgrade thread I saw on PS. Thanks guys for your responses.

 

http://www.mintonmotorsinc.com/index.html

call those guys and ask how much it would be with shipping. my sister got a transfer case and drive shaft from them for just a couple hundred bucks.

 

It sounds like someone once replaced the ball joints and tightened the castle nut with an impact gun and way overtightened them and damaged the tapered hole in the knuckles. It sounds like they sucked the stud way too deep in and said to hell with it.

 

Thanks Sheriff420 for the link! I'll call them this morning and see what they come up with.

 

i talked to my sister yesterday and it turns out that she just got a drive shaft from there and the transfer case from somewhere else. she didn't know the transfer case was bad when she was still living close to that company. she wanted to get it from them but it would have been a long drive for her so she got one from a junkyard in Knoxville. that place is still worth checking out though. they specialize in dodge trucks so it looks like where dodges go to die.

 

Thank you Sheriff420 for the link to Minton Motors! It really helped me out and I do appreciate it!!! I spoke with Robert there and I ended up buying a steering knuckle from him. His pricing was in the same ballpark as other quotes I received from an online used parts search. (Pricing ranged from $79 shipped to $95 shipped, which is what I paid him.) He told me he was a little busy the day I ordered it so he wasn't going to be able to remove it from the donor truck until late in the day and mail it out until the following day. That is exactly what he did and I received it 3 days after I ordered it. I now have the truck back together and things are much better!

It turns out that for whatever reason, the upper ball joint hole was reamed out somehow. I have a feeling it was something the previous owner had barely gotten by with and I ended up having to fix it the correct way. Perhaps something along the lines as to what speeddemon31176 had suggested may have happened. Thank you guys for responding, and best wishes to all.

 

i'm glad to hear that they did you right. 79-95 is a big jump from 600-800.