Dana 44 front wheel bearings need tightening?

[idahovette]

You don't want to BEND the hub. I don't know how you could do that. There is a shim that goes between the spindle and the knuckle that is designed to change the camber. The shims are made in different increments of fractional degrees to change the camber. NAPA ,Oreillys, and Specialty Products are where I get mine. These shims make a more positive change in that they are one position ,rather than having to watch the sleeve and keep it clocked without turning on you.

 

[Javin]

Awesome right up! Yeah I figure I wasn’t too far away to getting to them only took me about 15min to get the hub off per side so I don’t think it’ll be too bad to get to the balljoints. My uncle mentioned to me with his old K5blazer (which I bought off him later on lol) that you can do something to the balljoint that over tighten them which will cause your steering to be tight, have you heard anything about this?

 

[theblindchicken]

Awesome right up! Yeah I figure I wasn’t too far away to getting to them only took me about 15min to get the hub off per side so I don’t think it’ll be too bad to get to the balljoints. My uncle mentioned to me with his old K5blazer (which I bought off him later on lol) that you can do something to the balljoint that over tighten them which will cause your steering to be tight, have you heard anything about this?

Well the balljoints are the pivots, so if you over tighten them they'll bind up and make your steering tougher. Same thing with uniball/heim joints.

 

[75gmck25]

The body of the ball joint is pressed into the hub (can’t move) and the tapered bolt is inserted into the knuckle and held in with a nut and cotter pin. The grease-filled joint holds it all together. Regardless of how much you tighten the nut, it should not make the joint any tighter inside because it’s just holding in the tapered bolt. However, despite that, the hub did seem to get harder to pivot as I torqued down the nuts on the ball joints.

Your uncle may be also thinking about adjusting the steering box preload. It’s an easy adjustment, but can make the box bind if not done correctly. I adjusted mine when I replaced ball joints, and I needed to measure resistance at the steering wheel nut with an inch lbs torque wrench. It’s hard to be exact when trying to measure 6-14 inch lbs. You also have to make sure it’s measured and adjusted with the steering wheel at the center of travel, or your wheel may not recenter properly after a turn.

Bruce

 

[CORVAIRWILD]

I've been reading a variety of forums for years, and I've worked on a bunch of Corvairs, and I've never read anywhere from anybody, except Bruce, the above poster, about how NOT to adjust your steering box. He is correct, and I've had arguments with people, like banging my head against the wall when they tell me how they adjusted the preload, "adjust until it's tight and back off a quarter-turn". Give me a break, the inch pound torque wrenche is the way to do it, but I must be honest I never done it that way.

 

[Blue Ox]

Was he maybe talking about the sleeve on the upper ball joint? I've never tried overtightening one, but I guess it could preload it and make it tight.

 

[Javin]

Yeah that’s possible