Do you guys have techniques you use to determine if your Upper or Lower balljoints are worn?

On my '65 Satellite the Uppers have less than 1,000 miles on them, and they were not cheap Chinese parts. That points to my Lowers as the problem…

Here are the symptoms:
- I get one or two hard 'knock' sounds from the front end when I back the car out of the garage and suddenly brake. And it'll do it again when I shift into the Drive and brake. It doesn't seem to "knock" again if I continue in one direction, unless I'm doing a lot of steering like in city streets.
- Highway driving doesn't 'knock' much.

- When I make a pretty hard right turn, the left front wheel starts knocking and I can see the balancing weight on the rim has signs of hitting the steering knuckle. (It's not a problem in the other direction). So there is some looseness somewhere. Maybe that's a problem with the LOWER joint??

- With the car parked on a level surface. If I grab the top edge of either front tire and push/pull the front end back & forth (rocking the car sideways), I can detect a slight movement between the rim and the iron steering knuckle.

Things I've checked:
- The front bearings are tight and I can't detect any wobble at the spindle.
- I have checked all front suspension bolts and nuts for tightness; LCA pivots, K-Frame bolts, Strut nuts, and all are torqued well.

I also pumped more grease into the Uppers and Lowers, and I want to say it made a difference for one drive, but I'm not sure it really did.

The Upper BJs are new. Based on the above, should I just replace the Lower BJs already and see if that does the trick?

Thanks,
- Art

Sounds like the strut rod bushings.I replaced the ones on my 65 and they were bad again in about a few thousand miles.I finally pulled them and used a set of RMS rods that have hiems and are solid.Rocky

You have to check the ball joints "loaded". Which means that the ball joint must have the weight of the vehicle on it. Just jack it up by the lower control arm, then take a good sized pry bar under the tire (it only needs to be off the ground an inch or two) and lever the tire up and down. We use a 6' pry bar.

The amount of movement and location of that movement tells you what you need to know.

I agree with the above opinion that your description sounds more like a bushing problem than the ball joints.

Thanks all, I'll see what I can get with a long pry bar and a helper.

One correction to make - the contact I'm seeing is between the outer rounded edge of the upper A-arm and the wheel balancing weight.

I'll take a look at the struts and bushings - I'm only using OEM rubber. The front shut bushings are mashed down hard.

Thanks,
- Art

In the FSM they give you quite a bit of movement in the ball joints.Cant remember the spec but I always thought it was quite a bit.If you had a joint that bad it should show super easy.Id also check the adjuster for the upper arms.Ive seen them loose enough to move.Rocky

that knocking noise can also be a crack in the chassis where the k-frame meets the welded nuts in the chassis

I would also check to see that there isn't a gap between the lower control arm halves and the adjuster arm for the pivot shaft. This could pretty easily make the clunking noise you're describing.

I had the same clunking noise on a '71 satellite when backing up. It turned out to be the nut on the strut rod at the back of the lower control arm was loose.

Any updates as to what you found?