I have 3 brand new associated lower A arms that I bought about a year ago
And when I put the new pivot ball in it gets stuck and not free like it should be.
I’ve been threw 2 packs of pivot ball throughout all 3 lower A arms with no success.

Does that happen a lot? Or is it possible I got a bad batch of lower A arms last year?
OR Is there some oil or other techniques to use for these :mad: pivot balls

Thanks all

There really isn't to much you can do, if the molded hole is messed up. If it's just slightly undersized you can try to use an older pivot ball. It's a molded part and will never be perfect. This has always been a problem with that front end. That or the pivot ball slop around in the socket.

What type of pivot ball? (material) What company?

I have a great fix for ya.

Take the a-arm with the stuck ball installed in it. Now take a old king ping and incert it in the ball. Now gently take a pair of pliers and squeeze/massage the a-arm around the pivot ball. This will relax the molded part around the pivot ball. Keep doing this while checking with the king pin how free its getting. You can go too far and it will make it too sloppy. Make sure you have the king pin in the ball at all times to avoid distorting the new ball.

I use this method evertime and works flawlessly.

Let me know how this works for ya,

B Deel

Metals method work great, he taught me awhile back and I use it all the time but remeber be gentle and check it each time cause you can go too far.....

it did free it up a lot , but it took spinning the pivot ball inside the A arm with a drill.to make it right. so i bought some new lower a arms - and the balls pop right in and where free like they should be . so i must have had some bad lower a arms. Thanks for the help all

Laters
Brian

Metal said "Now gently take a pair of pliers and squeeze/massage the a-arm around the pivot ball. This will relax the molded part around the pivot ball".


Metal I have done some crazy things to my chassis before, But never a Squeeze and a Massage!!!http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/images/icons/icon7.gif Will have to try your tip next time I rebuild the front end. http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/images/icons/icon10.gif

lol whatever it takes.......my racing buddies don't believe me when I say i have relations' with my cars.......haha!

My method works great, there are times thats no matter how much you work the a-arm you cant get them smooth. But most of the time my method free's them right up.

Brian

Thanks for the great tip I am going to give it a try.