upper ball joint ?

[burdar]

I've been restoring the upper control arms on my 73 and just pressed the bushings in yesterday.  I don't have a ball joint socket so I just took the arms to the shop across the street and they screwed them in for me. 

The first one went in no problem.  The second one really went in hard.  They guy sprayed some penetration oil on the threads and got it to go in.  I heard the ball joint seat on the control arm but it isn't in perfectly straight.  The back of the joint is sitting down on the control arm lip but the front of it show a small gap.  It's only like 1/16"   

THe arms were very crusty when I started and ground on them a little with a flapper disc on my angle grinder to clean them up.  I didn't think I took that much material off of the arm lip.  I know the ball joint isn't goinig anywhere as hard as it went in...  Would you be concerned by the small gap at all?

 

[dodj]

That's a tough one. I'd be afraid of it being cross threaded. 

[74 340 4speed]

I just removed and reinstalled new ones in my 'Cuda.  It took significant effort to remove and replace them.  I let them soak in PB blaster for a few hours before removal then took them out.  After getting them out, I cleaned the holes and then coated it with pb blaster. I had to start and remove them several times until I felt comfortable that they were going in correctly.  After running them down as far as they would go, there was a little gap in mine as well.  Not much, but a little.  I think you will be fine.

[burdar]

As hard as that one went in...I'm not really worried about it coming loose.  I just looking for opinions.  The gap isn't much at all.  It's like 3/64 to 1/16 inch.

[Chryco Psycho]

I always use anti-sieze when I install them , I do not see a prblem with your situation as it has nowhere to go , but I am not sure sure it went in absolutly straight