ok so i just finished putting my drive side spring in (took about 3 hours!) and i am have trouble tightining the nut to the lower ball joint, the ball joint bolt just spins with the nut.i cant get it down enough to put the pin in. is the ball joint junk? and i would like to figure out a way to tightin the nut without removing the spring. please help

You need to replace the ball joint. If it is spinning and not seating in the spindle, it is loose inside the housing. Put all the vehicle weight on the lower control arm and see if that helps any.

Put a jack under the lower control arm to put pressure on balljoint/spindle then tighten the nut. A couple of short bursts with the air impact gun will do the trick

A couple of short bursts with the air impact gun will do the trick

:yes:

thaxs guys, ill try it and see if it works

Hit the spindle under load by the floor jack w/ a 3 pound Ford tool too!

It should seat the BJ taper.

pdq67

Put a jack under the lower control arm to put pressure on balljoint/spindle then tighten the nut. A couple of short bursts with the air impact gun will do the trick

this won't put any extra pressure on the ball joint- it will still be only the weight of the spindle and upper control arm being pushed down by gravity.
what kind of balljoints are we talking about here- decent quality stuff like Moog or Dana/Spicer or some cheap Taiwan brand that you can't pronounce that came in a cheap rebuild kit and uses metric hardware?

this won't put any extra pressure on the ball joint- it will still be only the weight of the spindle and upper control arm being pushed down by gravity.
what kind of balljoints are we talking about here- decent quality stuff like Moog or Dana/Spicer or some cheap Taiwan brand that you can't pronounce that came in a cheap rebuild kit and uses metric hardware?
It will be the force of the spring - just like if you could put the car weight to bear on it.
The name brand or quality of the part has no bearing on tightening the nut.

New or used ball joint?

A new joint generally has enough friction that the stud won't spin in it's socket without some persuasion. A used ball joint that spins freely--or has actual free play--isn't worth re-installing.

Jacking up the lower control arm (putting vehicle weight on the arm) merely allows the knuckle to sit on top of the stud. There's no force on the stud other than the weight of the knuckle and upper control arm. Still, that should be enough to get the nut installed.

Put a jack under the lower control arm to put pressure on balljoint/spindle then tighten the nut. A couple of short bursts with the air impact gun will do the trick
:yes:

i replace the upper ball joints and keep the oringinal lower ball joints. i havent tryed the air gun yet, cant find it in the mess i call a garage! ill get back to you and see if it works.

It will be the force of the spring - just like if you could put the car weight to bear on it.
The name brand or quality of the part has no bearing on tightening the nut.

go look at the front suspension on a Chevelle and figure out where all the forces are pushing and pulling, then come back and tell me how jacking up under the lower control arm puts more force on the balljoint..
when the car is sitting on the tires, the weight of the car is actually trying to pull the lower balljoint apart.

I have changed thousands of ball joints as a mechanic through the years and you would really need to explain to me how metric hardware or the name brand on the box would keep the ball joint nut from tightening. Its just not possible. Placing a jack under the lower control arm is not meant to place the weight of the vehicle on the ball joint so much as to counteract the force of the spring, which is trying to pull the ball joint from the spindle. I assure you that my way will have positive results rather than continuing a futile effort to tighten the nut because " i put good parts in it from napa" or these ball joints must be defective because the nut won't tighten. I refrain from responding to a lot of messages on this board because I either second guess the advice I would give or I defer to those with more know how, however, this is a subject in which I feel qualified to respond. This is the last post I'll make on the subject. I just recommend that the OP try my method and report back the results. I never thought in a million years that controversy could errupt from the procedure to tighten a ball joint nut. Unbelievable.

you've never seen crappy imported balljoints that have threads that don't match either the metric nut that comes in the box with it, or any American nut you can try to find? no matter what nut you try, it snags on the threads after a couple of turns and just spins it without tightening it down.
i've only done a few balljoints in my years, but i've had this happen twice- both times were with those cheap suspension rebuild kits that you see advertised on the back of magazine covers- one on a Camaro, one on a Chevelle. the tie rods that came in those kits also didn't fit the adjuster sleeves, and the tapers were wrong and the studs were too short to be able to get the nuts tight enough to get a cotter pin thru them. replaced the offending parts with Moog parts, and no problems.
in this case, it's a used balljoint- but i don't see how just the weight of the spindle will help much. i'd maybe try to seat the spindle onto the balljoint with a hammer or something to try to get it to lam together a bit before spinning the nut down.