Hey guys I’m needing some help. My 2001 zr2 tracker I just bought it and the cv axel is rubbing the top of the ball joint on both sides causing the boot to be torn off. Not sure what’s going on. Stock no lift.

 

You sure it's stock?

Shouldn't the control arm be under the knuckle?

 

im going to go with a busted ball joint. for some reason the tracker does mount the ball joint does mount like that. as you can see from the below image the boot shouldnt be stretched out that much

 

Hehe I've had a ball joint pop completely out on me before. By some miracle the control arm rode the rim long enough for me to park. It was noisy before it did, though.

Maybe your tracker is about to become a low rider

 

This is the passenger-side clearance on my 2001 4WD.




I can slip this 5/16" dowel rod between the axle and the top of the control arm. If your ball joint has 5/16" of slop it will be easy to
see. Jack the wheel off the ground a few inches. Have someone use a 2x4 to pry up the tire while you watch the ball joint.
If the ball joint has play the whole control arm needs to be replaced as the ball joint alone is not replaceable. But I
suspect this is not your problem. It seems more likely the previous owner replaced the axles with the wrong units.

 

I think you meant jack the vehicle body?

 

This is how Chevy says to inspect the ball joint. That's a lot of work so I start at step 5 and "support"
the control arm with a floor jack until the wheel is a few inches off the ground. You could do the
same thing by jacking up the body but I usually don't.

 

I think the balljoint spendal is to big for the hole maybe? That’s not letting the control arm go down far enough? Could it be the wrong control arm?????

 

I think you may be onto something.

On my Tracker the distance from the bottom of the control arm to the top of the spindle (in orange)
is just a little more than the thickness of the spindle (in red).



From your (excellent) photo it appears the distance from the bottom of the control arm is twice the thickness
of the spindle. That could explain the lack of clearance at the CV joint.

 

It’s crazy to think one can fit that close. I don’t think there is enough threads to press that one in to work and tighten up. And I don’t think it should be that hard to get in there.