70 upper ball joint grease fitting

[Hack]

I have seen that a lot of people here run aftermarket suspension, and I think I will at some point. At the moment I'm short on funds to do that, so I'm rebuilding my stock front end. It must be done soon, because it's currently unsafe on the highway! My baby is a 70 vert.

I've heard about a right-angle grease fitting that can be assembled to the upper ball joint to cut down on the squeaky front end syndrome. Does anyone have some info on where I can get them? Are there a few different styles on the market? Any tips?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Blue Thunder]

Aftermarket ball joints should come with grease fitting holes in them. The grease fittings themselves are available in straight, 45-degree and 90-degree at various auto parts stores. (You might get lucky, and get new ball joints that come with the angled fittings you require)

 

[Hack]

Ok maybe I'm way off base here, but I remember reading that a regular 90 degree fitting would hit the inside of the shock tower. Are you sure I can just use any old 90 degree fitting?

 

[splinterddt]

Okay, I think you are talking about the upper control arm bushings and not the ball joints. That is where you run into clearance problems. The regular 90 degree fit really tight, and you cannot get a grease gun on them without a needle adapter. The biggest thing is to find extensions to go into the fittings. There are several places that have kits for the control arms. I happened onto some 90 degree fittings with extensions for an import (can't remember the exact application) at the shop I worked at. This is the main squeak problem area.

 

[GaPonyFarm]

I just picked up a '70 fastback and someone has drilled about 1.5" holes to access the fittings. They were smart enough to put some decent plugs in, so it looks ok. I was thinking I'd close the holes, but I think I'll just keep the holes, like they are.

 

[ForceFed70]

I'd love to talk to the jackass who cut holes in my shock towers.

The towers cracked because of this, and I had to remove the engine and suspension to fix.

 

[GaPonyFarm]

Your shock towers cracked because it had holes drilled in? WTF... were they 3" holes or just shoddy work?

 

[Hack]

Hmm,
Thanks for the info, yes I'm sure I was wrong and it isn't the ball joint fitting. Maybe it's the upper control arm bushing.

Now I'm torn about the whole drill a hole thing. I like the idea, and I suppose if you did a nice job, you could even weld some kind of reinforcement in the area. I'd hate to have the shock towers crack, though.

Probably better to get a needle adapter for my grease gun.

 

[1320stang]

Your shock towers cracked because it had holes drilled in? WTF... were they 3" holes or just shoddy work?

DRILL!?!? Everyone I've ever seen done was with a smoke wrench. LOL!!!

 

[ForceFed70]

DRILL!?!? Everyone I've ever seen done was with a smoke wrench. LOL!!!

Exactly. A drill would involve removeing the motor to get access.

The shock towers in these cars arn't all that strong. Putting in holes just makes it worse.

 

[Ozsum67]

I'd love to talk to the jackass who cut holes in my shock towers.

The towers cracked because of this, and I had to remove the engine and suspension to fix.

I would bet they cracked because at some point, the upper CA bushings were shot, and undue stress was put on the towers. I've seen towers actually flex from the strain of NO upper A bushings.

 

[1320stang]

Now if towers crack due to the stress put on them by the UCA bushings, how does a MII front end perform any better if you're removing the tower itself. (I'm not disagreeing or arguing with you Ozsum, I'm just using your post to try and figure out why a MII front end is suppoed to be so great) I agree that the area between the framerails is better as now it's all welded as one piece. A thin piece of flat sheetmetel to replace the hole left isn't going to help transfer the load to the firewall. This is why I like the Fatman strut front end better than the MII conversions as you can notch the towers for a bigger motor, yet still leave some support in there. Now if you're running a cage and have some front bars going out to the front end, that's fine. But putting a MII in to make changing plugs in a 302/351 seems wasteful. And putting a 460 in a '65-'66 wouldn't handle very well, put would make for a cool ProStreet car, yet now you're probably putting a cage in one. A 460 will fit into a '67-'68 by notching the shock towers. The only real good reason I could see doing it would be for a drag car, but then a Pinto front end is better than a MII front end, and a strut front end is even better (ever see any Pro Stock cars with MII front ends?)

I'm not trying to slam anyone that has one of these MII front ends, but I'm still not convinced it's overall stronger and has less flex than the stock front end.

 

[ForceFed70]

I would bet they cracked because at some point, the upper CA bushings were shot, and undue stress was put on the towers. I've seen towers actually flex from the strain of NO upper A bushings.

You lost me here.

How does a worn out bushing cause stress? Maybe from the impact from the worn out bushing could cause a "hammering" type of effect...but I don't know how you'd be able to see that in action.

Alignment issues and funny noises I've seen from worn out bushings. But never stress to the shock tower. The cracks were verticle, If it was due to the a-arms, I'd expect the cracks to follow stress lines which would be horizontal.

I just can't see how a worn out bushing would cause stress, other than by a hammering type motion because of the slack in the bushing. But even then, a-arm bushing always have weight on them, so even this isn't likely to happen.

 

[Ozsum67]

You lost me here.

How does a worn out bushing cause stress? Maybe from the impact from the worn out bushing could cause a "hammering" type of effect...but I don't know how you'd be able to see that in action.

Alignment issues and funny noises I've seen from worn out bushings. But never stress to the shock tower. The cracks were verticle, If it was due to the a-arms, I'd expect the cracks to follow stress lines which would be horizontal.

I just can't see how a worn out bushing would cause stress, other than by a hammering type motion because of the slack in the bushing. But even then, a-arm bushing always have weight on them, so even this isn't likely to happen.

I don't know. But I do speak from experience. I was on my honeymoon, upper CA bushings wallowed out so much, that it couldn't be aligned properly, even with shims. We were headed west on I-70 on our way to Colorado, when all of a sudden the front end got real loose. I pulled over and looked underneath and couldn't see anything wrong. I opened the hood of my 69 Fastback, and asked my wife to turn the steering wheel. I turned white with fear because of what I saw. One side of the tower (driver's) was flexing and almost piviting. The spot welds had broken loose. I limped it into KC and found a "honeymoon" motel and actually was successful in putting it out of my mind for the evening. Next morning, I called up some welders, and limped it down to their shop on a Sunday morning. We took some measurments and eyeballed it and he welded things back in place. Later on, we drove it up on top of Pikes Peak. I always suspected it was the CA bushings being shot or the stress of it being so far out of alignment that did in the tower.

 

[GaPonyFarm]

Thats an interesting story, that does deserve some thoughtful consideration.

While I don't think the worn bushing is the culprit, all by itself. It does look like multiple sources could have been working against you. Either way, weak/broken shock tower welds and worn UCA bushings are things to check on a regular basis and are known problem areas.

 

[ForceFed70]

That is odd Ozsum67.. and I tend to agree with GaPonyFarm in that there was probably more going on than just a worn out bushing.

 

[Ozsum67]

That is odd Ozsum67.. and I tend to agree with GaPonyFarm in that there was probably more going on than just a worn out bushing.

What then? There were problems initially, like sqealing tires when ever I would go around a corner, or when the front end would dip down when I would hit a low spot in the road, the tires sqealed then too.

 

[GaPonyFarm]

I'm not saying that you're wrong... buts its a good possibility that your shock towers were already weak or broken at the welds and the UCA bushings just made it worse. With the bushing bad, the vibrations could have easily caused the upper control to loosen some, possibly enough to drop a shim or two, putting more strees on an already weak shock tower, add to that the possibility of week springs = poor alignment, vibrations, wheel "rollout", etc... With cars of this age, it seems like it hardly ever just a single cause and a single effect.

I am glad you got it home in one piece. Falling off Pike's Peak would have really hurt!

 

[Ozsum67]

I'm not saying that you're wrong... buts its a good possibility that your shock towers were already weak or broken at the welds and the UCA bushings just made it worse. With the bushing bad, the vibrations could have easily caused the upper control to loosen some, possibly enough to drop a shim or two, putting more strees on an already weak shock tower, add to that the possibility of week springs = poor alignment, vibrations, wheel "rollout", etc... With cars of this age, it seems like it hardly ever just a single cause and a single effect.

I am glad you got it home in one piece. Falling off Pike's Peak would have really hurt!

I was but a wee lad back then. Barely marrying age. After the weld job, I never did get it aligned or rebuild the UCA bushings. I drove it for another 6 years, and the tires wore a bit on the inside, but it didn't pull too much. I did have a leak at the rear seal of the tranny, (only under a back pressure situation) like idleing down Pikes, and lost 2 quarts of fluid on the way down. It was throwing it up on the exhaust pipe and the thing looked like it was on fire.