Knuckles hard to turn after ball joint replacment
 

Hello all. I recently replaced the front ball joints on my 90' V2500 Suburban with AcDelco units. I bought all the correct tools, followed all the torque specs and now the truck has memory steer. Today I torn down the driver side knuckle and only tightened the lower ball joint to spec, with the top adjuster loose and the knuckle is hard to turn by hand. The front axle is a Corp 10 bolt. The Spec I followed was: Torque bottom ball joint to 30lbs, torque adjuster to 50lbs, then lower joint to 70lbs then top ball joint to 80-100lbs. After this, if Im driving 10mph and turn slight to the right, the truck will continue to go right, I have to turn it back left. Any help/tricks/tips would help. Thanks!

Re: Knuckles hard to turn after ball joint replacment
 

Have you had it aligned?

Re: Knuckles hard to turn after ball joint replacment
 

Don't know where you got those specs. Loosen everything up. Lower bj to 80. upper adjuster to 50. Upper lock nut to 100 ish, to lineup slot for cotter pin ..done. I aways use the spicer joints

Re: Knuckles hard to turn after ball joint replacment
 

I had found the specs I used on a post I found here. Yesterday I torn down the driver side, had the knuckle loose, tightened only the lower joint to 70lbs and the knuckle was still hard to move. Seems like the joint is binding. I'm starting to think the AcDelco joints I got are no good in this situation.

Re: Knuckles hard to turn after ball joint replacment
 

They're gonna be tight when new...just put a set on mine when I changed to crossover steering...even the old ones were tight

Re: Knuckles hard to turn after ball joint replacment
 

Lower joint has nothing to do with the 'tightness' other than the manufacturing of the joint. Adjustment comes from the top....kinda

Re: Knuckles hard to turn after ball joint replacment
 

how was the axle u-joint ? if getting stiff or binding this can cause memory steer if it parks in the wrong spot as it will bind in the same motion the knuckle wants to turn .

and there is a pull spec on the ball joints using a hanging scale on the tie rod hole of i think its 25lbs of drag / force to move the knuckle .

were these ball joints greaseable ? and i tend to do moog as lots of acdelco now is china stuff . always had good luck with moog my self .