Bl**dy lower ball joint now!!!... what next...

[shpub]

John

Just a thought but do you have the standard shocks? It could be that if these have been changed that the shock length is slightly longer than normal and this causes the joint to go onto its limit?

[haircutmike]

BliarOut said:

haircutmike said:

TVR Beaver said:

Good point.. This year I hope!... anyone recomend a supplier that supplies the correct units??

BTW... I did all this last year also... just doing it again this year for something to do

Edited by TVR Beaver on Thursday 30th December 23:02

A bit like my steering rack about to come out for the 5th time.....

Another rebuild? Who have you been using?

Bought 1st P/S rack from PH member and converted to P/S.
Rack was worn and had excessive play, (no refund ).

Took rack out and sent to local refurbishers, fitted and no improvement!

Took rack out and sent to Kielly Clintons, said rack was beyond repair as parts weren't available.

Bought another from a trade source, fitted and yep, this had play.

A second rack was sent and duly fitted, this had play also.

At this point you may think it might be the U/J's, but these are all new and you can see the play inbetween the splined input on the rack and the rack itself.

Waiting for 3rd rack to arrive from trade supplier who I must say has been very helpfull .

I am now close on being the rack changing expert!

[spend]

Oh you've got several hundred changes still to go if you want to equal Rob

[haircutmike]

spend said:

Oh you've got several hundred changes still to go if you want to equal Rob

If that's the case, he can remain the expert and I will quietly walk away muttering fking car!

[spend]

haircutmike said:

...and I will quietly walk away muttering fking car!

He probably outscores you 20-1 on that count as well

[TVR Beaver]

shpub said:

John

Just a thought but do you have the standard shocks? It could be that if these have been changed that the shock length is slightly longer than normal and this causes the joint to go onto its limit?

Steve... Yes.. still got the Billies on... sure I would have seen this last year when I fitted them... the only thing I can think of is the new bush set up has changed the position a bit (it would not take much).. or the old rubber bushes held the suspention up from the bottom a bit (as when you took the shock off... it all sprang up a bit...
either way, it's making contact now....

[BliarOut]

spend said:

haircutmike said:

...and I will quietly walk away muttering fking car!

He probably outscores you 20-1 on that count as well

Have you been in touch with Titan if you need some new internals Mike?

[haircutmike]

BliarOut said:

spend said:

haircutmike said:

...and I will quietly walk away muttering fking car!

He probably outscores you 20-1 on that count as well

Have you been in touch with Titan if you need some new internals Mike?

Titan???

[BliarOut]

http://www.titan.uk.net/

They make custom racks, I would imagine they might have a rack bar available to help you rebuild the best one you have.

[Del 203]

spend said:

haircutmike said:

...and I will quietly walk away muttering fking car!

He probably outscores you 20-1 on that count as well

Missed this thread y'day ....

[TVR Beaver]

This is mental!

My old bottom ball joint just started binding when on full tilt (wheels danggling as in the orig post) so the bolts would only just go in the slots.. but with no adjustment ~(they would not push back any more).. see pic1


So having thought about it I bought some new ones from TVR Power... they must fit loads so should have the correct ones.. and Dom said they have never had an issue... (new ones fitted to arms)
pic2


But now when I push these back until they lock... I can't even get the bolts in the holes!!
pic3


So put them both in a vice... line up the base and yes, you can see my old one (in the distance) does have a tad more movement than the new ones..... (not the best of pic's but believe me they do)
pic4




Is it just my car that suffers this... and if so.. why??

You can get them with 'more' movement from Raceing Green I think... but why are the rest of you not seeing this?....
I have std arms... std shocks... yes I've Powerflexed them but so what, that should not change anything....
Is my only answer to spend a mint and buy super articulated ones.....
I did consider putting a washer under the old ones on the two outside holes... This just about get's me full adjustment... but that said, when set they are towards to front of the slot anyway....
But got to say, this is a mystery..

Edited by TVR Beaver on Thursday 6th January 20:41

[chris52]

John I have just been out to mine as its still on axle stands and removed the top shocker bolt and with that removed i still have at least 1/2" of downward movement before the bottom ball joint locks out as yours does. Now the only difference is I have Avo shocks not the origional bilsteins.

If you think about it there must be something wrong with yours because if you wanted to change the shocker you would need to either compress the spring or remove either the top or bottom ball joint and that seems wrong to me.

Chris

Edited by chris52 on Thursday 6th January 22:25

[chris52]

Quinny said:

I can't see what the issue is....

Surely, once the bolts are put through the top wishbone (by jacking up the bottom wishbone until they line up)..

Then the ball joints can't reach their limits of articulation, because the top bolts will stop the whole assembly from dropping that far...

I think that point he is making is that it should be the shocker limiting the travel of the arms not the ball joints. While the car is on axlestands the pressure from the shockers will be trying to force the balljoints out of there sockets or at least putting a lot of stress on them. I guess this is OK while driving as long as you don't do dukes of hazzard jumps but as soon as you jack the car up if the shocker cant extend fully its got to be putting a lot of pressure on the joints
Chris

Edited by chris52 on Thursday 6th January 22:50

[TVR Beaver]

Yes... If the wheels left the ground over a hump-back bridge for example (or more like a 6" deep pot hole!!), the shock would come down and try split the lower ball joint (not good)
Thanks for looking Chris... may be it's a OE shock v after market issue so that's why everyone else does not see it now?.. Mind you Quinny has Billies on his.... Do you get the same issue and you've jacked it up to fit??

Edited by TVR Beaver on Friday 7th January 07:40

[spend]

What do you really expect to limit the extent of droop?

You may even find that the old drop links were the first part to seize in the original setup?

[haircutmike]

Hi John.

I just checked mine as I have the rack out at the mo!

I don't have this problem as my dampers, (the new Gaz Mono's) don't let the suspension droop as much, therefor the lower joint doesn't articulate to it's full movement.

I have noticed with some makes of dampers that in a set, there are a longer pair and a shorter pair.

There is less suspension travel on the front, therefor the shorter pair should go there, is this the case with your's?

If not, for some reason your dampers are longer and allow more, (too much) movement??

I would show you a picture of mine but, frankly I'm embarrased it's not as clean as your's .

[TVR Beaver]

spend said:

What do you really expect to limit the extent of droop?

You may even find that the old drop links were the first part to seize in the original setup?

I would have thought it was the damper the controled the movement.... You don't want it locking out on joints before the damper itself stops do you?....
The old drop links were the rubber things and flopped about all over the place... so it didn't stop on thoes...

[TVR Beaver]

haircutmike said:

Hi John.

I just checked mine as I have the rack out at the mo!

I don't have this problem as my dampers, (the new Gaz Mono's) don't let the suspension droop as much, therefor the lower joint doesn't articulate to it's full movement.

I have noticed with some makes of dampers that in a set, there are a longer pair and a shorter pair.

There is less suspension travel on the front, therefor the shorter pair should go there, is this the case with your's?

If not, for some reason your dampers are longer and allow more, (too much) movement??

I would show you a picture of mine but, frankly I'm embarrased it's not as clean as your's .

Peter... Thanks for that... Same as Chris above... I think after market units have less travel than the original Billies and may be thats why this is not as bigger issue as it was in the past??... I'm putting them on the right way (already checked that) and the Billies are colour coded to make them ideot profe (but I've also checked the numbers).

Mine is clean for now.. but I'm sure next year they won't look the same... even this year when I get the wax oil out

[haircutmike]

TVR Beaver said:

spend said:

What do you really expect to limit the extent of droop?

You may even find that the old drop links were the first part to seize in the original setup?

I would have thought it was the damper the controled the movement.... You don't want it locking out on joints before the damper itself stops do you?....
The old drop links were the rubber things and flopped about all over the place... so it didn't stop on thoes...

See above post.

[TVR Beaver]

haircutmike said:

TVR Beaver said:

spend said:

What do you really expect to limit the extent of droop?

You may even find that the old drop links were the first part to seize in the original setup?

I would have thought it was the damper the controled the movement.... You don't want it locking out on joints before the damper itself stops do you?....
The old drop links were the rubber things and flopped about all over the place... so it didn't stop on thoes...

See above post.

So you think it should lock on the joints first also??... Mmmm... if your right then no problem but arn't you stressing these things??