5-lug conversion gone horribley wrong

[NKau]

I'm having a pretty big problem trying to get '97 spindles onto my '93 LX (an original 5.0). With the spindle sitting on the balljoint and with the control arm jacked up with the strut bolted to the spindle, the bottom of the strut actully rests right against the balljoint stud, not allowing you to run the nut on. By looking at the old spindle, I can see that the strut-mount points are actually angled to keep the base of the strut from contacting the balljoint stud, and the old spindle itself is actually taller. But these new spindles obviously are not. Am I missing something here? Why won't these work?

 

[trbkrb]

Are they aftermarket struts? Some of them are a bit longer below the mounting points than the stock ones. But anyway, the mounting point for the struts on the 94+ spindles is lower than the Fox spindles, so it is quite possible they would hit if the strut is longer below the mounting point. When I did mine, I used ALL sn95 parts and had no problem, struts, ball joint, spindle, etc. I have heard of others with the same problem. I don't recall what they did to fix it, but I think one of the guys was going to try the steeda ball joints. Hopefully someone else will have some info.

Good luck.

 

[NKau]

Yeah, that's the issue I'm having. The strut cylinder actually extends below the mounting bracket, and that's what's giving me grief. I'll see what some others have to say before ponying up the cash for new struts or ball joints. Thanks.