Heidts drop spindle won't accept OEM ball joint

[smith & sons]

Heidts drop spindle Will not accept OEM lower ball joint stud(hole in spindle is .026 too small on big end of tapered hole)-55 Belair. Does any one know of a ball joint that will fit the oem controll arm and the new Heidts spindle?? This has not been a problem in the past ,Heidts changed their spindle so you would have to buy their controll arms for 1100.00!

[Rod]

if it don't fit send it back, they are a sponsor here so they might chime in with a solution, or you could just call them

[Mr. Anderson]

No advice on ball joints, but try to find a good front end shop around you. Some of them will have reamers, and can enlarge the hole in the spindles and keep the proper taper so it will work.

I asked them about their spindles for Chevelles, and they said the same thing....will ONLY work with their control arms. They wouldn't tell me why though.

[vette427-sbc]

Unless they updated their design recently, they might have sent you a wrong part... I have a heidts drop spindle with stock lower control arms on my '55

[smith & sons]

I did call them.They changed their design.Their solution is 1100.00 worth of their controll arms with their ball joints!

[smith & sons]

Thats the direction I am headed.Thanks for your input,it confirms my thinking.I am hearing major suppliers question selling their spindles if they are doing this.

[andrewb70]

Send it back and if they don't agree to a refund, tell you credit card company.

Andrew

[Mr. Anderson]

By the way, thank you for posting. At work we are a Heidt's vendor, and specifically sell those spindles in our catalog. Heidt's has never contacted us to tell use they changed the design.

[HeidtsEngineering1]

Hello All,
Please call us here at Heidts if there is a question about the Spindle or Control Arms. If there is a problem with your spindles we will work with you to figure it out.
I fit the Spindle today to our set of Stock Control Arms, and everything fit fine. I am working on verifying the ball joints in our arms are stock replacement. Once I do, and assemble into a stock frame, this will verify that everything fits Stock as well as our Control Arms.
Thank you,
Owen
Engineering Manager, Heidts

[parsonsj]

We're going to move this thread over to our Vendor feedback sub-forum. Smith: in the meantime please call Heidt's directly.

jp

[Blown73]

I was under the impression that one advantage of using a heidts front end and parts is that they are all adaptable to stock components, such as control arms and ball joints.

I am still new to this forum, but one thing that I really like is the vendor support here. I think that it's great that we can post our problems, and actually have the manufacturers input on the solution.

[smith & sons]

When I called Heidts with the fitment issue they aknowledged my problem & reafirmed what their web site stated"MUST USE ONLY HEIDTS CONTROLL ARMS"(shown in large red letters).In fact I had mis measured (useing a vineer calipre on a tapered hole).The difference between my old spindle and the Heidts was only .010.I assembled everything & it all fit fine except I had to use a thick machine washer on the upper ball joint so the nut would not bottom out on the threads before meeting the spindle.Heidts has since CHANGED their web site to state "will work stock & Heidts controll arms".It shure would have made my life alot easier if Heidts had toled me this when i called the first time.I would have re measured and found the answer myself.