Hello everyone. New to the forum here... I picked up a 2001 1500 4x4, 5.9, reg cab, short bed, off road pkg truck a few months ago. I am building it for some decent off road capability. I have the front axle currently apart for 4.56 gears, Detroit locker, CAD delete, Yukon free-spin kit, Yukon axle shafts, and Yukon super joints. Ran into a situation I've never had when building a front axle. The new upper ball joints, which are knurled Moogs, fit the inner axle C loosely. When pressed in you can wigging them by hand. I've looked for an 'oversized' ball joint and have not found one made by anyone. I did take a measurement of the joints that came out, the new Moogs are approximately .003-.005" smaller. I did search the forum and found this person had the same issue I am having. The thread really didn't provide a closing decision for them. I have called Teraflex and synergy. Teraflex joints are measuring about .005" larger than the moogs. I am waiting on Synergy to call me back with their measurement. Backup plan for me is to dimple the joint socket and maybe run a through it and bore it back to round. Lastly is grinding off the inner C and welding on a new one. I did some searching around and this seems to be fairly common with the ram trucks and jeep wranglers. Wondering how everyone else fixes this issue. Thanks.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...all-joint.html

 

Nope. Get the right balljoints. The ones you have are too small. Given that you want to off-road your truck, you want things RIGHT! RMA the ones you have for something that actually fits right. Your life depends on it.

 

The BJ's I removed fit much tighther. I can almost install the Moogs by hand. The ones I removed would need to be pressed back in. They appear to be FDP JC Whitney joints, knurled. Thanks previous owner. I'm looking at Teraflex and Synergy ball joints. Problem I see with both these is they are tailored for wrangler applications. I can use their upper joints, but the lower joint part # does not appear to cross reference.

After doing more part number searching, it seems all the TJ's, JK's, Grand Cherokees, Cherokees and Comanches list the same upper ball joint as my 2001 Ram's Dana 44, a K3134T. I can easily get a Teraflex or Synergy in knurled version for this. The lower ball joints for all the Jeeps noted are calling for either a K3161T or a K3185 in the later JK. My truck calls for a K7401. Not sure why the trucks' Dana 44 would get the same upper but different lower ball joint? I may see if either the K3161T or K3185 will fit so I can utilize a full Synergy or Teraflex ball joint kit.

 

I think the lower joints are meaner, as they support a fair bit of weight.

 

Get Spicer ball joints.

 

Spicer only makes non-knurled joints from what I could find. I pulled the trigger on JK Wrangler Teraflex joints, knurled. From what I can tell it appears the aftermarket joints are made for the Dana 44 Wrangler and then jump up to the 2500 and 3500. So the Wrangler joints address the Dana 44 1/2 ton axles. Worst case scenario I'll run the Teraflex upper joints and K7401 Moog lower joints. And if they still fit the bore loose I plan on running a 1/4"-3/8" long weld bead and grinding it back so the joint fits tight.