REAMING A SPINDLE

HEY MAX I HAVE A BELLTECH SPLINDLE ON A FORD THAT NEEDS TO BE DRILLED OUT FOR A DIFFERENT BALLJOINT, HOW DO I TELL MY MACHINEST TO DRILL THEM OUT? DOES HE HAVE TO PUT SOME KIND OF SLEEVE IN THE HOLE? AND ALSO WILL THIS WEAKEN THE SPLINDLE? WHAT BALL JOINT DO YOU SUGGEST FOR THIS? FYI ITS A F150 SUPERCREW. THANKS

you need to break down and buy the reamer bit. I got a fluted one for 60 bucks. it reams spindles real well.

I can't suggest a balljoint because I don't know what your needs are. Also, I am not a balljoint guy, I prefer to use uni-balls.

If you find a balljoint that will do what you need it to, you should be able to find the degree of taper and buy a ream or tell your machinist and see if he/she has the proper ream.

As long as the hole doesn't need to be rediculously huge, you shouldn't need to worry about strength.

SO ALL I HAVE TO DO IS GET IT THE SAME SIZE HOLE OF THE BALLJOINT TO MATCH UP ON THE SPLINDLE? WHERE WOULD I GO TO LOOK FOR UNIBALLS?

Just because the hole is same does not mean that the taper is the same.

hm-engineering.com has all of your uni-ball/heim joint needs.

99 time out of 100 the stock or stock style balljoint will have plenty of travel IF and thats a big ass IF, the balljoints are at lock when layed out, then you have all that travel until you lock at the top.

Uniballs are great because they look cool and you have all that extra travel. however some styles of uniballs have no way to grease them and therefore will eventually start to rattle like a crappy heim joint. The Uniball will fit just about anything you can drill the spindle on as well.

The look of the balljoint vs the unball is also a big factor on custom rides.

I prefer to use cool looking screw in balljoints, and sometimes the aluminum covers they make for them.

its all a matter of choice after weighing all the factors. Afco racing sells some tight ass screw in balljoints that look killer, fit most spindles, are tough as hell, dont need grease and have plenty of travel...

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY TAPER?

going from large diameter to small diameter is the taper. most are the same but some are different, especially metric and brand specific or proprietary meaning that only that company uses that taper. you wont run into that though.

If you are only needing a minor taper adjustment try and get a taper reamer with a reverse helix. As you turn the reverse helix tool in it wont pull itself down like a standard reamer which can cause chatter and gouge your work. My machinist showed me this on a Mazda spindle we modded to accept an S10 upper ball joint. It only needed a minor adjustment so we turned it in by hand and it worked slick.