The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Steering arm ball stud, help w/part #s

Im trying to find new ball studs for my steering arm. Ive drawn a very rough picture with measurements and Im hoping someone can look through their books and find me a replacement.

All the guys that deal with heavy truck parts apparently arent working at Napa this week. The guys that are there just get that vacant deer in the headlight look and their eyes glaze over...

Heres my crude drawing with measurements.

Heres whats listed in the GMC Master Parts book listing 1.0380 for Stud-Ball, Steering Arm

Part #094602

Vehicle Series; 300-350-370 all (280-22, 300-24, 350-24, F350-24)

Size (5/8"-16 x 2 7/8")(at drag link)

Thanks for the help, Jeff

You might try Jim Carter Truck parts (1-816-252-5857/oldchevytrucks.com)for this. They sell a similar item for 3/4T that might work. Their P/N is ME664. Good luck.

Looks like a 3/4 ton is 1/2' and the larger ones 5/8" bolt and the ball is 1 1/16 larger also. I doubt if anyone has reproductions I have seen them on eBay and there is very little interest, but that is like searching for a needle in a haystack. There are probably some around, but people don't know what they have. Since you have the dimensions, a machinist could turn one. There are a few small town machine shops left that will still do something like that reasonably.

wwhy not try is::
http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/draglink_adjustable.html
or work w/ the napa guys (when they return) and size approately for larger rigs

We used to have a good FLAPS here and after trying for several years they finally sold out to Napa. Napa is absolutely worthless in this area and Ive never had good luck with them.

I was hoping someone here had access to a spec book and could look it up by size.

So far Ive gone through every linked website from the parts section and shot off a few emails, but no luck yet.

Jeff

Jeff this might sound a little far out, but a lot depends on just how serious you are about the restoration. I've had to fab quite a few parts for my 3604 and fortunately I didn't have to make the ball studs. I don't have a hardness tester but I gave the old studs a file check in several places and they are soft to the file so that tells me that they are not heat treated. This is not a terribly difficult part to make for a job shop that has CNC equipment. I would bet that if you took your old parts to a job shop they could fab you new ones from 4140 which would be as good as the originals. The program for this part is very simple and a qualified shop should be able to knock them out in an hour or so. Once the progran is written making the part will only take a few minutes of machine time. You night even see what they would charge for a dozen or so and sell them off to offset the costs, might even get yours for free after selling the extras. I’m sure you aren’t the only one that has had this problem.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL