Ball Joint Discussion Revisited

[Bitsyncmaster]

If you grease just the inner sleeve then friction may hold the bushing in place on the LCA - I think that is how it is suppose to work. I have installed the neoprene bushings on mine and I noticed that I have an outer ridge from the bushing laying on the frame where the LCA bolts to the frame (actually, I sent it to Hervey asking what the heck). I greased BOTH inner and outer surfaces and I think that has screwed me. Although I don't see any travel yet of the LCA along the sleeve - I believe it is only a matter of time and I am in for a replacement session for them both - again.

Not sure if this is what you mean but it got me thinking. The only thing that prevents the LCA from moving for or aft is the friction of the poly bearing in the LCA. Where that lip on the poly bushings would help prevent that.

Don't know how much force is applied to that for and aft movement. Not sure how much the poly lip would help but it's looking like I should machine the LCAs rather than cut the poly lip off.

Thanks for your reply.

[Mark D]

Dave this thread might be helpful....

http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?54...thane-Bushings

When I was installing poly LCA bushings I experienced a similar issue...the bushing halves seemed to be too wide (wider than the inner sleeve) and with the washers in place was not possible to fit the control arm back in the frame. The solution was to use a hydraulic press to firmly seat the bushings deeper inside the LCA pipe so they sat flush with the inner sleeve. The sleeve length + the thickness of the two outer washers will fit, it's just a matter of pressing the bushing halves fully into the LCA pipe.

Here's the same picture that I posted in the thread linked above:

[DMCMW Dave]

Don't cut the flanges off, the arm will walk off the bushing.

[hmcelraft]

Don't cut the flanges off, the arm will walk off the bushing.

Oops - Polyurethane Bushings is the right term.
Based on the washers that came with the bushings that I installed, it appears that "walking" is in inevitable - flanges or no. I wish I had examined the engineering closer before I went and installed these things. They seem to work great and stay straight - for a while but, I already have one flange on a bushing torn off. I can't see any real movement yet but I don't know what is holding it except the compression of the bushing and I wonder if that's really enough.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Thanks again for all the response.

My LCAs are the Pearce stainless units not sold anymore. Not sure if anyone has installed the EU poly bushings into those yet. I did use a press to seat the poly bearings fully (the lip is seated onto the "pipe". Yes the poly bearing halfs still have a gap inside but if I press them further then the lip will just roll over the ends of the pipe.

I did have a "brain fart" thinking of cutting the lip off. But thanks to this forum to set me strait. Thinking about it more, I do think the lip will be a pretty strong way to hold the bearings from "the LCA walking off the bushings". Once the washer is clamped tight into the frame that lip will be pretty strong.

I did measure the OEM LCA and this would not be a problem with it. I also guess using an OEM bushing would not be a problem.

It's going to be a pain to cut that tube on my LCAs since my mill is to small to mount the LCA onto the table. I think what I can do is cut hole in a steel plate to use as a guide over the pipe and use a bench disk sander (with carbide sandpaper) to grind off that 0.035" on the ends of the pipe.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Here are the measurements:

Eds inner steel bushing = 1.930" long
Washer, each = 0.057" thick
Poly length, each = 0.849" (not counting lip)
Pearce SS tube length = 1.992"

I could not get my calipers onto the gap in the frame but the steel bushing with two washers fit with a little bit of play.

So it looks like the poly bushings will have a 0.032" gap between them when installed. I need to cut 0.031" off each end of the tube to make them equal to the steel bushing. I don't think it's a critical cut I need to do since the bushing will take a little compression and not be a problem if I'm a little shorter.

Edit: The poly probably gets a little longer after they get installed and compressed a little by the pipe and inner bushing.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Another thing I had to do was run a die over the threads on those ball joints. They were not cut deep enough and the nuts would jam. They may have gone on if I forced it with a wrench but I feared the ball joint would start spinning. Maybe it's just my set of ball joints. But that would have also affected the correct torque needed.

The threads are 7/16" x 20 threads/inch

[Mark D]

I was forgetting that you had the stainless control arms...From what you're describing it just sounds like the length of that tube inside the control arm is what is causing your problems like you originally posted. It seems as though you've calcualted how much of the metal tube you need to trim off. As another option if you still have your stock LCA you could measure the length of the tube and then adjust the stainless arm so it matches the stock tube length. Either way it sounds like you've at least identified the source of your problem.

Milling the extra material off sounds like the best option... I'm not sure what else you could try that would be as precise...you could try a sanding block by hand but stainless is pretty tough material and I could see it being difficult to keep the surface flat and square to the tube. Or maybe a large grinding disc in a drill press? Just go really slow and use the flat surface of the grinding wheel to take off a small amount of material.

[Bitsyncmaster]

I was able to get the LCA clamped onto my mill table. I took cuts of 0.005" so it did not need much to clamp it. More time is spent shimming it square.

One cut down, 3 to go.

[Domi]

Is it the stainless front control arm from Josh?
Looks very nice.