I am trying to get an idea of which aftermarket upper ball joints at least look “closer” to original, along with having good function, for my 70. In the pictures below on the left is the upper ball joint I removed from my control arm. It was bolted in, so it is not original, although it was placed on the car sometime prior to 1985, so it is an older replacement.
On the right is the moog ball joint NPD and others sell. Question is - straight sided triangle vs. the scalloped triangle? Which is more correct?. Also, would there have been a retaining ring for the dust boot? My original scalloped replacement did not have that either.
I saw pictures of NOS service replacement upper control arms on e-bay that had the scalloped triangle and no retaining ring, but I’m not sure that answers the question of what originally came on the car. My 1970 Ford Manual, page 14-02-04, Figure 4, has a drawing showing a straight sided triangle ball joint, but I still wonder if that is an accurate representation.
The Raybestos ball joint at Rockauto looks very similar to the one I have pulled off my car. (although they are using the same picture for a $12 ball joint and $26 ball joint, so I am wondering about that as well).
Any thoughts, or original pictures/references to point me toward?
Thanks, Barry
