Ball joint play

[WelmoedJ]

Over here a question came up.
Is there anything known about the play a (lower) ball joint has when new?

The question arose after one of our members had to pass the yearly inspection.
The inspector told him the lower ball joint had too much play.
He ordered new ball joints from DMC and had them installed.
Only to find that a new inspection showed the same amount of play as the old ball joints.

I am very interested in seeing some light shed on this subject.

[Mark D]

How new are the 'new' dmch ball joints?

Up until several months ago DMCH was still selling their own reproduction parts which have been reported to have premature failure issues. The gentlemen at DMC Club UK sourced a MUCH better replacement (more robust than the original OEM design) and DMCH and other vendors like DPI are now selling those instead of the failure prone components.

If the ball joints in question were ordered more than 3-4 months ago they would be from the old batch of parts that are known to have issues.

There is already a ball joint thread on this forum that describes the differences in greater detail, see here:
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?2408-Ball-Joint-Discussion-Revisited

[Chris4099]

Are you sure the play is coming from the ball joint? I could be between the ball joint and the LCA. To fix that, you need to install a reinforcement collar on the LCA and then install the ball joint. Here's a pic from specialtauto.com:
https://www.specialtauto.com/delorean-parts/images/lower-control-arm-retainer.jpg

I got mine from PJ Grady, but specialtauto.com now sells them too. I didn't have any play, but installed them anyway just to make sure it never develops in the future.

If your replacement ball joints were just $25, then they are the older remade ones that are junk and probably only last a few years (I've personally gone through several). If you paid about $90, then you should be safe using them going forward once you find the source of the play.

[dmc4087]

Over here a question came up.
Is there anything known about the play a (lower) ball joint has when new?

The question arose after one of our members had to pass the yearly inspection.
The inspector told him the lower ball joint had too much play.
He ordered new ball joints from DMC and had them installed.Only to find that a new inspection showed the same amount of play as the old ball joints.

I am very interested in seeing some light shed on this subject.


Why are people still buying their balljoints??

[Dmcfan1981]

i had a scary thing happen about a couple of years ago with the "new" dmch balljoints...it snapped off and my whole front end was pretty much dragging on the road...i was going 40 mph. imagine if i was on the freeway, i would have been dead. I would love to know of a reliable source for balljoints that don't explode.

[jawn101]

i had a scary thing happen about a couple of years ago with the "new" dmch balljoints...it snapped off and my whole front end was pretty much dragging on the road...i was going 40 mph. imagine if i was on the freeway, i would have been dead. I would love to know of a reliable source for balljoints that don't explode.

Talk to Josh at DPI, I believe he was selling the DMC UK club joints that look just amazing. There is a whole thread on here somewhere on exactly this topic.