Maxi ball joints above or below arms?

[daimlerv8]

I would suggest that the 'ball' is passed up through the wishbone and bolted up.In this way,if the bolts fail,the ball is still attached to the wishbone and some steering is retained.

[Mr2Mike]

GinG15 said:

the reason why i hi-jacked the original posting was that with mounting the balljoint below the wishbne...the pivot point could be lowered, hence the general geometry would change a bit.

so we have still not a really clear answer if this makes sence or not.

This has already been addressed (by Chris-S); mounting the balljoint above or below the wishbone will make absolutely no difference to the location of the pivot points.

Draw an imaginary line between the centre of the maxi ball joint and the centre of the bushes on the inner end of the wishbone. You should be able to see the angle of this line will remain fixed, irrespective of which side the balljoint is mounted, even though the angle of the wishbone itself changes slightly.

To change the effective location of the balljpoint, the tapered part that engages into the upright would need to be shorter or longer.

[Fastdruid]

finishing touch said:

Mine are Cortina B/J's but mounted under. (bolts covered with IVA plastic caps)

I can remove all four bolts and the car will just sit there, so the bolts can't be under any strain as I don't do negative G.

Replying to an old thread of mine...but isn't that a Mk1/Mk2 Cortina ball joint...which I believe is a McPherson strut not a double wishbone and so equally as unsuitable as the Maxi ball joint (in that it is being used for different loading to the designed spec)?

And to answer my original question, I'm going below (and with a different ball joint).

[Mr2Mike]

The Mk1/Mk2 Cortina has a strut with the bottom balljoint integrated into a forged lower arm, just like a Mk1/2 Escort so it's not from one of them.

Your balljoint appears to be bolted to a flat plane which would also rule out the later Mk3/4/5 Cortina balljoint, which has a bend in the mouting plate, and the mounting centres don't look right either.