Ball joint Tapers?

[RS_Customs]

Need some help.

I have searched quite a bit trying to find out if there is a standard taper on ball joints. I have found there seems to be 7 degree and 10 degree and the tools to ream them out. Are these the only 2 tapers used across the board for chevy, dodge, ford, toyota, ect.... How do you determine the taper you have?

Thanks for the help.

[B Schein]

That is the normal sizes you will some time see them referred to a 2-inch per foot and 1.5-inch per foot.

[RS_Customs]

Thanks B Schein.

Is there an easy way to determine the taper you have?

[Matt@RFR]

Sure. Measure the big end diameter, the small end diameter, and the length between them (on axis).

Plot those points out on paper or in a CAD program, extend the lines to one foot and measure the difference again. 5 minutes is all it should take.

[wickedmotorhead]

exact conversions at the bottom of this page...
taper conversions

[David Pozzi]

When GM started using one piece cast spindles, they went from 7 deg to 10 deg taper on balljoints and tie rod ends. As far as I know, they have continued to use the 10 deg taper to this day.

While tapers may be the same, the major diameter may vary, larger vehicles use larger balljoints.

[B Schein]

The trigonometric solution is to measure the two holes. Subtract the small hole from the large hole divide that by 2. Then take the arc tan of that answer divided by the cross-sectional area of the hole in the upright. I hope this make senses here is an example of a random hole sizes.

Larger hole=.7
Small hole=.5
Cross-sectional are of spinal is 1.5 along the axis of the hole

so .7-.5= .2
.2/2=.1

tan^-1 *(.1/1.5)= 3.81 degrees

You answer probably wont be exact because it will be hard to measure the hole size right at the ends but you should be able to get close enough to figure it out.