I am gathering parts for suspension rebuild. My question is should I replace the upper ball joint with a tall one to help fix alignment issues and if so, which one is recommended?

 

What is the alignment issue? Stock or modified suspension and wheels?

 

So far stock suspension. The caster issues with the A body cars. While everything is apart, I'd like to address it. Most likely 15x7 or 8 in front. Wheel decision up in the air. Thinking steel wheel "poverty wheel" look.

 

Sorry can't help, my experience is limited to stock suspension and components. Going to watch the thread and learn.

Good luck!!!

 

Tall ball joint's won't "fix" any alignment issue. They will actually create alignment issues that you will need to solve by other means. The purpose of the tall ball joint is to correct the poorly-designed camber change that happens in the A-body cars when you corner. The tall ball joint changes the suspension geometry, which changes how the camber of the front tires changes as the suspension sweeps through it's range of travel. Unfortunately, this can sometimes make it difficult to achieve the proper alignment specs without changing to a shorter upper control arm or using way too many shims on the upper control arm.

 

Thank you Joe. Let me correct myself. I don't have an alignment issue that I know of...yet. The camber change while cornering is what I want to address. At this point I want to keep everything stock looking as possible and was thinking going with tall upper ball joint and not going to tubular arm. You mentioned a shorter upper arm, Is there such a thing for the A body?

 

Unfortunately the only short upper arms I've ever seen are tubular, so that defeats your purpose. You can sometimes achieve the correct alignment settings with stock upper arms and lots of shims, but this pushes the upper arms towards the exhaust manifolds and can conflict with BBO manifolds and headers. There are offset upper cross shafts to help reduce the amount of shim, but the arms still get pushed inboard.

 

Are you going to push this car hard enough to reveal the flaws in its suspension?

 

If done correctly, you'll feel the difference in normal driving.

 

My '69 retains the original suspension geometry and it drives like ... well, a car from 1969. Kind of why I got it. I don't expect it to feel like a new Lexus. That would just be weird.

 

There's a reason why Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors.

 

And Jay-Z has 99 problems ...

EDIT: Seriously though, before making modifications OP should be clear in his own mind about his intended use for the car.

 

Install new bushings, BJs, good shocks. Verify the springs are good. New springs are cheap if needed.
Install poly frame and end link bushings on the stock 442 sway bar. You could go up a size on that.
This is about as good as it gets without a custom front end. 442s handle fairly well with this rebuild/upgrade and good tires.

Find a guy that can align the front end properly for radial tires.

Do the rear-end bushings as well so your tail doesn't drag.

 

I'm going to disagree here. The 64-72 A-body cars do not have a particularly well-designed front suspension. The tall ball joints help a LOT. Also, these cars are understeering pigs in stock form. Increasing the size of the front bar just makes that worse. Herb Adams used to put a 1 3/8" REAR bar on these cars for more neutral handling.

 

Thank you everyone for your input, however still trying to figure out what to do. I ordered all new springs from UMI, UMI 1 3/8" drag sway bar (in black) and thinking of getting their rear upper adjustable arms with the roto joints, Have stock rear lower boxed arms. I am not doing road courses with the car, however, I've been known to drive hard and fast. Unfortunately there are no drag strips near me any more...I would do that. 455 .30 over, Edelbrock heads, Air gap intake, TH400 and 3.73 10 bolt posi. It's an animal!
So, stock front arms, new bushings and ball joints is what I was planning. By putting in a taller upper ball joint in will not help me at all? I was also going to use the UMI 1 1/4 front sway bar, probably a waste of money? I know the rear upper arms are not stock appearing, but they are not seen easily.

 

You may want to consult with the guys at UMI, or any of the other reputable suspension suppliers (ridetech, speedtech, detroit speed, etc). You can also pick up "How to make your muscle car handle" to gain a bit of insight into why things are changed. Right now you're going down a path of nothing but disappointment. Sway bars are tuning aids once the rest of the suspension is sorted. If your geometry is crap, they're not going to help.

Step 1 is definitely fixing the horrendous camber curve. If you want to go tall ball joints and reuse your existing spindle, that's great. But it is not recommended to stick with the factory arms. They're the wrong geometry for the effectively taller spindle. They'll be a royal pain to get anything resembling a proper alignment, as Joe has stated, and, if your ball joints are tall enough, they'll put the suspension in a bind in compression. So in order to do this, you need new uppers at a minimum. The new A-arms typically also add caster to increase steering feel. However, these are not "stock appearing". They're tubular.

The rear arms aren't your highest priority. But once you get there, the point of the roto joints is to address the inherent binding of a triangulated four-link suspension. Be aware, roto-joints are more maintenance intensive than stock rubber bushings.

Seriously, talk to the guys at any or all of these companies about what you actually want out of your car. If you want to get a decent entry level understanding of the issues, pick up the book. If you really want to dig down, you'll know where to find that rabbit hole after reading through the book.

Best of luck.

 

Yeah, expect their response to be "buy our suspension package"...

 

I use tall ball joints on my control arms because they are more for road racing. They didn't allow enough travel for drag racing. That's all I'm gonna say. These are eBay tubulars

 

I mean, yes, but also no. They'll actually explain the different levels of improvement and tailor their suggestion to how you're going to use your car. The last thing they want is for you to buy 850 lb/in coilovers for a cruiser and complain everywhere about how awful and harsh their suspension is.

It's also the reason I suggested talking to multiple companies and picking up a book...

 

I decided to keep front end stock for now, and see how the car handles. It's going to be a while due to body work still needs to be done. Thanks to all!