Help needed on disk swap..presumably from a Granada spindle

Hello,

Doing a front disk swap on my 73 using a Granada set I got from a large junkyard in Denver and running into a big hangup. Here are the facts:

put the spindles in and although the upper ball joints fit beautifully, the lowers are too small to the point I can rock the spindle in and out and see the lower ball joints move within the spindle. The tie rods fit just fine.

Lower arms/ball joints are new (chinese) so I compared them to a moog set and they are the correct control arm/ball joint assembly. According to my parts guy at Oreilly, the part numbers for the Granada, Maverick, and Mustang are all the same so there should be no difference in lower ball joints.

Casting numbers on the spindle are 5D8AA 218 on driver side, 5D7AA 211 on Pass side. Based on what I could find on this forum and elsewhere, they were made in 77 and 78 respectively, but I'm a little confused on the AA code. Although I didn't take the spindles off the car, I've used this junkyard a lot and I don't believe they wouldn't knowingly advertise them as Granada spindles if they were from a thunderbird or some other car. I considered ordering the lower ball joints from a thunderbird, ranchero, ltd to see if this spindle is from those cars but the ball joints are press-fit and won't work with my control arms.

The upper ball joints and tie rod ends fit fine, it's only the lowers that don't fit.

Any thoughts, gentlemen?

 

I did the same thing on my 73, I used 75 Granada spindles, and had no issues.
I wonder if they are later Granada?

 

Mine are from a '78 granada. No fit problems at all

 

According to the Moog book, all Granada has the same part number for the lower control arm/ball joint assembly. Same goes with I6/V8 variance. Definitely scratching my head on this one. At first I wondered if the p/o had these spindles machined, but they still have the factory grooves inside the spindle and if they were machined the bore would likely be smooth. I'm going to see if I can mount upper ball joints into the lower arms tomorrow. The parts guy had to order the upper joints and I'll see if they work.

 

When I got the spindles, they had the ball joints and half of the control arms still on them. I really, really wish I kept those lower joints when I broke this assembly down. I can't even recall if the lowers were press-fit joints, which would confirm they were from a thunderbird,ltd,ranchero, etc.

 

Just found something interesting.

http://fordsix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=24385&start=0

This guy claims that a purpose built spindle for the lincoln versailles was identical to the Granada spindle, but the lower ball joint hole was larger. That might answer a lot of questions.

 

Off to Mustang Steve's to order the lower ball joint adapters for $29 each....eek. This junkyard hacks me off, if I drive by and happen to have a brick in the passenger seat.......who knows.

 

Or get some Lincoln lowers.

 

Can't get the lincoln lowers. Just like the maverick, it's nearly impossible to just buy the lower ball joint...Everybody wants to sell the ball joint and lower control arm as a single part. Even if I could get the lowers, I'd have to chisel a new set of ball joints off my new lower arms and hope they mount up. I figure the sleeves would save time, trouble, and a considerable amount of money. Besides, I'm trying to keep my car from becoming frankenstein. I'm not very good at remembering what part came from what car.

 

I have some of those Mustang Steve made adapters...Just saying!!

 

After reading thru this, I was just going to say you grabbed a set off a Versailles. You should have grabbed the 9" rearend too. 9's were optional under the Monarch and Granada's too, so it pays to look under any of em before passing em up. And there were drum and disc brake 9's under them as well.

 

Biggest problem is I didn't grab the set. The local huge junkyard here in Denver advertised on car-parts.com that these were granada spindles. I called and they went on and on about how hard these were to come by. They knew what they had and called them granada spindles to get them sold. Shady

 

I honestly don't see it as a "shady" deal. Honest mistake made by a junkyard that just didn't realize there was a small difference betwen Granada and Versailes disc brakes.

 

Maybe you're right, Craig. Since they're the ones that removed them from the car, I would like to think they knew what they had. He went on and on about how hard the Granada spindles were to find and that's why he wouldn't negotiate with me. I suspect they figured they were close enough and called them granada spindles, but who knows. I just don't like that I paid a premium price to get the wrong parts.

 

What was a premium price?