Installing balljoint. Wedgepin not inserting correctly
 

This should be a pretty straightforward process.

Inserting the wedge pin on a new ball joint on the strut, the wedge pin will not go through. If you look through the hole on the strut where the ball joint attaches, the ball joint shaft is not flush in the hole. This seems to block the wedge pin from passing through, even with a hammer blow.

BOTH side are like this.

In my crude pic below you can see the ball joint stud inserted into the strut. The dark red show about how much protrudes in the hole, blocking the wedge pin from fully inserting. Am I missing something??

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1395090320.jpg

Can you turn the pin some, to get better alignment? Post a pic of the pin? There was a bad batch of pins several years ago, but they should have worked their way out of the parts chain by now.

That's with the pin/relief cutout lined up parallel with the hole as close as possible. Besides, the wedge pin should continue to "flatten" out any skew.

I thought I recalled after removing the wedge pin, the relief cut out on the ball joint attachment point nearly matched the strut perfectly. i.e. you really couldn't tell there was something in the hole until you began pulling the ball joint down and out.

wtf....

When I get home I'll take a picture of what it looks like.

You SURE you have the correct ball joint? The right part has a "V" shaped cutout, the wrong one (early) has a half round cutout.

The Cap'n

Not that uncommon of a problem.....

Maybe I have the wrong ball joint... In fact I'm pretty SURE I have the wrong part. The correct part it shows in the pic is as Cap'n described... 'V' shaped not rounded. However I did learn something. Don't throw away your old parts until your completely done and on the road... (you'll have something to compare.)

Here's some pics to confirm:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1395107535.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1395107574.jpg

Sure looks as if you have the wrong ball joints. The one you show in the picture is the early style 901 341 049 00, your car takes late style, 911 341 049 01 (assuming it's the '80 SC you mention in your sig line).

The Cap'n

Yup, wrong ball joint.

If those are the early style and Lemforders you can sell them to someone with a 69-71. I just went through this and it was tough to find them as they're not made anymore. The Hamburg Technic version is junk and the ones from the dealer are double the price (almost) and probably repackaged Lemforders.

It happened to me. I spent a lot of frustrated time trying to get that pin to fit, never thinking I was sent the wrong part. I was starting to doubt my mechanical ability. My supplier quickly sent me the proper ball joints. Then it slid right in.

Ditto!