Front top ball joint information

Front top ball joint information

Author
Discussion

greymrj

Original Poster:

3,316 posts

203 months

Tuesday 4th March 2008
quotequote all
A bit more info to add! The front top ball joint is a SAAB part, fitted to the SAAB 90 (84-87), SAAB 99 (69-86), and SAAB 900 (from 78 up to 93). The later SAAB 900 will not fit. The correct part number is Quentin Hazell QSJ1004S as added on the alternative parts list. Alternatives are Lockheed TC125 and First Line FBJ5138. I just purchased a pair at £10.79 each. Although these parts are still available at the moment they are an unusual part not used on any other vehicle and apparently they are unlikely to be remanufactured. We have been through the parts lists for the above suppliers, both for cars and light commercials, and we can find nothing remotely similar so there will be an engineering problem to faces when supplies are exhausted.
For information, the link below is to a photo of the assembly. The hub carrier appears to be standard Sierra. Instead of the Macpherson strut which normally fits into the top of the Sierra unit, there is a small special TVR part (the domed bit marked B on my photo) which has the tapered hole for the SAAB ball joint (marked A on my photo). (17.5mm core). The two bolts mount the ball joint into the top wishbone, which has slotted holes for these bolts to provide some camber adjustment.
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa102/greymrj/1...

Wonky

29 posts

195 months

Tuesday 4th March 2008
quotequote all
The same joint is used on the Griff & Chim so hopefully the specialist TVR suppliers will commission remanufacture in future. I expect the price will rise significantly though.

S3Swiss

235 posts

233 months

Tuesday 4th March 2008
quotequote all
Nice pic and post - might get a couple of the balljoints - just in case! Haven't had to disturb mine yet but sure I will at some stage!

S3Swiss

235 posts

233 months

Tuesday 4th March 2008
quotequote all
Nice pic and post - might get a couple of the balljoints - just in case! Haven't had to disturb mine yet but sure I will at some stage!

Barkychoc

7,848 posts

203 months

Tuesday 4th March 2008
quotequote all
Just to make life more interesting I bought a QSJ1004S balljoint last year in their new style blue packaging and it didn't fit.

Here's my old thread, which also shows why other balljoints don't fit if you're interested.

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

In the end I used the genuine saab item, more info in the thread.

Chris

tvrgit

8,470 posts

251 months

Tuesday 4th March 2008
quotequote all
Did mine a year ago, used the QH part, it fitted straight on. Details here:

http://www.haggishead.myby.co.uk/TVR/dec06.html#d28 

Barkychoc

7,848 posts

203 months

Tuesday 4th March 2008
quotequote all
My suspicion - totally unfounded - was that QH had changed supplier - the motor factors I used ordered direct from the manufacturer so my guess is that it was new stock.
It definately didn't fit though, well it would have if I'd filed the wishbone more than I did for the genuine saab item.

Caveat Emptor!

Chris

trickjohn

293 posts

208 months

Tuesday 4th March 2008
quotequote all
Hi I brought one from motoquip 22 Feb - part No VSJ388 £9.24+vat, it fitted a treat. (S3C)

BR Sean

kenpage

322 posts

205 months

Tuesday 4th March 2008
quotequote all
cris i think you are right i fitted the qh top joints to mine a perfect fit but they were in old type packaging i also fitted new bottom joints 1 was in old packaging and fitted 1 was in the new style packaging and did not fit without a little filing

greymrj

Original Poster:

3,316 posts

203 months

Saturday 8th March 2008
quotequote all
A good bit more info to add if I may. I can now see where you were coming from Chris.
The new ball joint fits perfectly into the top wishbone BUT; the top wishbone is slotted to provide some camber adjustment. You can get the new joint in but it wont slide in anything like as far and the camber adjustment is very much restricted. I could only get about 1/5th of the adjustment range. The problem is that the fixing part of the joint is the same size but the part of the casting that holds the ball is wider and doesn't taper in as fast and has a bit of a 'shoulder' on the casting.
Pictures 1 and 2 hopefully show the difference in the two joints.
Pictures 3 and 4 show how far I was able to slide in the old joint and the new; quite a difference.
I decided to file a radius on the inside edge of the mounting on the wishbone, this doesn't effect the strength of the wishbone but does allow the joint to slide in considerably further.
Picture 5 shows the filed mounting and 6 how far I could now slide the joint in. Better but not as far as the original.
I then realised that the outside edge of the casting on the joint was quite rough and that I could smooth out the shoulder quite easily which would allow the joint to slide further in.
Picture 6 shows the filed joint and 7 shows that it will now go in about as far as the original.
Bit of a fuss but it now fits really well and I've got the adjustment back.

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa102/greymrj/1...
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa102/greymrj/1...
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa102/greymrj/1...
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa102/greymrj/1...
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa102/greymrj/1...
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa102/greymrj/1...
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa102/greymrj/1...
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa102/greymrj/1...

Edited by greymrj on Saturday 8th March 21:57


Edited by greymrj on Saturday 8th March 21:59


Edited by greymrj on Saturday 8th March 22:02

Barkychoc

7,848 posts

203 months

Saturday 8th March 2008
quotequote all
Richard if you look at your photobucket album - use the bottom link out of the choice of 4 and you get the pic to show in the forum.

A bit of de ja vous there for me!

Chris

greymrj

Original Poster:

3,316 posts

203 months

Saturday 8th March 2008
quotequote all
So thats how it is done! Wondered how some members did it. Thanks Chris.

Barkychoc

7,848 posts

203 months

Saturday 8th March 2008
quotequote all
It will allow you to edit your post - so you can change the above post to show the actual pics.

greymrj

Original Poster:

3,316 posts

203 months

Saturday 8th March 2008
quotequote all
Tried it, didn't get it right, got a headache now! Talk me through it again some time Chris and I will try to do it next time I post a picture. Must be my age.

tvrgit

8,470 posts

251 months

Saturday 8th March 2008
quotequote all
Right - if you click "quote" on this message you'll see the code to get the pics. Copy the code, paste it into your original post, I'll delete this and nobody will be any the wiser eh? wink









greymrj

Original Poster:

3,316 posts

203 months

Saturday 8th March 2008
quotequote all
Thanks for that. Credit where credit is due, I will leave it as it is and learn for next time. Shame about the big pics though, show all the blemishes in the paint!

tvrgit

8,470 posts

251 months

Saturday 8th March 2008
quotequote all
You can change your post and have the credit, no problem. I'm not interested in looking clever.

Can you not reduce the size of the pics and then save them in photobucket with the same name? I don't know - I use my own web site to store pics for posting, so there's no restriction on uploading / changing stuff...

Barkychoc

7,848 posts

203 months

Sunday 9th March 2008
quotequote all
You can be cleverer than that!

Use the [thumb] option - so for the pic below I type

[thumb]http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa102/greymrj/100_4226.jpg[/thumb]

which gives a small thumbnail picture which you can click on to enlarge.



I haven't used this but looking at it I reckon its a great option if you want quite a few pics in your post.

Chris

greymrj

Original Poster:

3,316 posts

203 months

Sunday 9th March 2008
quotequote all
I had no idea that was possible, and it is very useful. Seriously Chris, why not do a posting specifically on how to use photobucket? I'm clearly not the only one who would benefit from it and if it means more photos get attached then everyone should benefit. I know photobucket isnt the only option but it does look like the most popular one amongst forum members. Perhaps such a posting should be stuck at the top of the S Series forum permanently?

Barkychoc

7,848 posts

203 months

Sunday 9th March 2008
quotequote all
Here's one I prepared earlier in true blue peter style.
If you go onto the website feedback forum under the main pistonheads forum menu there are others aswell (I found that out afterwards). (I originally posted mine here but the moderators moved it to that forum)

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Chris


Edited by Barkychoc on Sunday 9th March 11:17