replacment ball joints

[plumcrazee]

has any of you guys used these i need some asap and they look ok???


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-Ball-J ... ories#shId



any coments would be apprciated??

[ubercrap]

I think those look like the good ones. There are versions that are still available from parts dealers that have kind of a flimsy housing, but those look like the good beefy kind. If those are the ones I 'm thinking of, the people have had them for sale forever because somebody with a huge collection of parts was periodically releasing NOS sets for years with low starting bids- but if you need 'em now, well...

[wildthings]

Those look like good ones, but I have been able to get them for only about $100 or cheaper on eBay in the past. Depending how bad you need them now you might try to hold out for a better price.

[plumcrazee]

need them asap as the cars off the road without them and it was off too long last year with being rebuilt lol

so looks like i will have to bite the bullet and go and order them


cheers matt

[raygreenwood]

Yes, those are good ones. The price is not extremely ugly. Be sure to drill a grease hole in the center, cut gaskets or seal the flanges with RTV so can pump grease through the weep hole on the inside side of the flange. Do not throw away your old ones. There may be something we can do eventually. Ray

[plumcrazee]

hi ray i have already been looking at drilling and fitting grease nipples from some of your earlyer posts cheers


and will keep the ball joints then as you say you never know????

incidentally what does the spring in the ball joint do?? took me ages to fit it all back together. and after about 10 mins it just popped of and again ages to find the spring and to rebuild it again with 3 tack welds this time lol


cheers again folks

[plumcrazee]

ok been looking at the ball joint situation just thinking outside the box


if you made the 3 bolt base of the balljoint then couldent we weld in a cup section and have off the shelf ball joints with the same taper/length pressed in?????


just a thought any one tried it or any reason why we cant????????

[ubercrap]

Sure, that idea has been kicked around on here. I don't think anyone has done it yet- you can be the first!

[raygreenwood]

ok been looking at the ball joint situation just thinking outside the box


if you made the 3 bolt base of the balljoint then couldent we weld in a cup section and have off the shelf ball joints with the same taper/length pressed in?????


just a thought any one tried it or any reason why we cant????????

Been working on that one for some years (back burner). That is the final solution....but there are lots of obstacles.
(1) finding a ball joint with the same taper pin. That would be ideal as the ability to redrill a new taper (must be larger) and not have an effect on the strength of the boss in the control arm...is unknown. We do not want to weld and go to a smaller pin ball joint.

(2) Once you start doing the measureing...you will find that the space inwhich this ball joint fits...is very tight...between rotor, backing plate, strut housing and also to have all of this through a radius of turn. This is why VW...made the joint and the housing as one assembly instead of making a housing that a replaceable cartridge ball joint would press into. The problem is that to find a replaceable cartridge ball joint with teh rather large pin assembly wee have and need.....generally puts you into the truck ball joint range (like for a Dodge ram)...or one similar in size to a bus ball joint.
Measure the outer steel cartridge size...and then think about a safe steel 3 bolt hosuing size....and this joint gets pretty fat very quick.

This would require...in order to keep the housing slim enough to fit within the confines....that it be made of something like chromolly.
All of this is doable.....but its not a simple solution.

(3) add to this...that for any strut cartridge settings stiffer than stock...or lower profile tires....the stock spring sindie of the stock ball joint is inadequate. It is too light in tension. The spring is there to keep tension between the ball and steel face of the housing so the joint does not bounce when you go oever bumps. The spring is behind the inner half cup that is on the back side of the ball opposite the pin. It is usually made of nylon or delrin. This "cup" is low in friction and is a seat for the spring. If the spring is too light...or tyeh strut springs too stiff....the inital load from driving over a bump first compresses teh spring inside of the ball joint. It should compress a small amount....for some give...or the ball joint pin will readily snap. But...on our ball joints...it compresses too hard and too far. Over time, this beats up the captive face/race area....which has the hole in the center where the pin protrudes. You evenetually end up with a loose sloppy joint that wil eventually break.

The more common problem is that....lower profile tires having less flex....combined with strut valving stiffere than stock or bad struts that let you bottom out on compression stroke...heavily compressthe inner spring...causing it to crack. Once teh spring gets damaged....the ball joint beats the crap out of itself internally.

If you have old style ball joints with the swaged cap on the inside....they can be rebuilt if unrusted or undamaged...in two ways:
(a) By removing the cap (but not the swaged rim) with a dremel....cleaning up the joint and polishing the inner face and putting either a milled bronze cup inside or taking another plastic cup out of a different joint. Then get a spring from a stronger ball joint like a truck joint...to make it stiffer. Instead of putting the cap back in...put in a bronze washer and asnap ring. I use this same method to r ebuild center links with.

(b) all of the above....but instead os a snap ring...simply thread the insude of the joint cavity with a pipe threader and install a flat steel disk that sits under the bittom of the tsrut tube once it is bolted on..and compresses down into place. Once you remove the strut tubee for any reason...the whole joint comes apart. I have done one like this and it works very well. Ray

[wildthings]

As Ray and I have discussed in earlier threads, I think the solution is to make a ring that will fit around the cheaper stamped aftermarket joints so that the flanges do not bend. Assuming that these joints stay available for a while this would be a fairly cheap solution.

Most any machine shop worth a hoot could turn out a set of these rings in a few hours.

[raygreenwood]

As Ray and I have discussed in earlier threads, I think the solution is to make a ring that will fit around the cheaper stamped aftermarket joints so that the flanges do not bend. Assuming that these joints stay available for a while this would be a fairly cheap solution.

Most any machine shop worth a hoot could turn out a set of these rings in a few hours.

Yes ...thanks...I forgot about that. For stock front ends...a simple strengthening ring will make the slightly weaker aftermarket replacement joints perfectly acceptable. Its only when things get modified that you start having an unacceptably short life on the balls joints. Ray

[plumcrazee]

cheers ray dident think it would be an easy one i have managed to get a mint pair of second hand ball joint while im waiting for the new ones to be deliverd mine fellapart quite well when i took off the shock and the plastic part the ball fits in is past its sell by date lol



the ride with the new shock and ball joint is well smooth tho no play or wobble any more