I am working on my front suspension and am having an issue with the rubber grease cover on the upper ball joint staying in place.

Some background. 1969 2+2 with low miles. Working on a lift. Refreshing shocks and rubber stuff on the front end. Since the ride height was fine, I did not remove torsion bars. Replaced the upper and l lower fulcrum bushings. Rebuilt the upper and lower ball joints. I used a turnbuckle to line up the upper and lower wishbones for re-installing the ball joints. I got the distance between the two shock bolt holes to 13 ˝” which is the mid-point for the suspension according to the manual. Attached upper and lower ball joints all is good. Then I raise the lower ball joint with a jack and removed the turnbuckle. Installed the new shock absorber. The roll bar link and tie rod is not attached yet. When I lowered the jack the grease cover popped off. The only thing limiting the spread of the wishbones at this point is the shock absorber. According to the manual this will prevent “necking the ball joint. Picture is attached. I just attached the ring. Should those two loops be somehow joined together. Second picture attached.

Any advice to keep this from happening. The steel retainer ring has two loops. If I have to support the car to prevent this, it would theoretically mean any time you used a lift the cover would pop off.



Thanks