I have an '86 Trooper and I've been slowly bringing her back. The latest projects have been suspension bushing and CV joint overhaul. Had the rear springs reconditioned and a leaf added and replaced the worn-all-the-way-through shackle and frame bushings. Vast improvement in driveability and cessassion of squeaky chirps from rear.
Then I decided to redo the front suspension...
Everything seemed to go fine, except that the new lower ball joints are about the thickness of the CV boot rubber away from the CV joint. Needless to say, this is not good and causes the boot to get knocked off when in 4wd. The new lower ball joints are an autozone product (made in japan and sold as duralast) and are an exact match, except for a square-ish raised portion on the top of the ball joint where there is a grease fitting. The old ball joints had a sort of raised area, but it was lower profile and rounded and I didn't have any clearance issues.
I was hoping to get some advice from someone who knows these front suspension systems a little more intimately than myself. I have ordered another set of ball joints from Beck-Arnley (I believe that's it) and autozone will refund me for the ball joints that I have already installed.
Thanks in advance for any advice. I have driven the trooper since replacing all the suspension components (except lower c-arm bushings which will be replaced along with the torsion bars sometime in the future) and it drives like a new truck. I am psyched about the performance, but I do not want to drive it too much and recontaminate the outer cv joints which were in excellent condition and just recently cleaned and repacked with grease, new boot, etc...