Zero Top Ball Joint

[Guest iank]

Its been many years since I last played with ball joints on any car so I would like to check with the more experienced here.

 

I'm fitting the top ball joints to the wishbones on my Zero . I can wind the ball joint into the wishbone by hand for about 20-30mm (it differs between the wishbones) at which point it becomes a huge effort to wind them in any further.

 

I can see the wishbones are threaded much deeper than this so I'm sure I'm not cutting new threads and when I unwind them the thread on the ball joint doesn't appear to be damaged.

 

I dont remember have such difficulty last time I did anything like this (OK it was more years ago than I can actually remember) . But having to use so much force is surely wrong and will make any adjustment virtually impossible!

 

Your experiences will be much appreciated

 

Ian

[Longboarder]

I think your experience is common. I suspect the thick walled tube is welded after it has been threaded and distorts slightly messing up the threads. It would be nice if GBS ran their tap down it after welding to clean it up again or perhaps they do and somehow your wishbone was missed. You should do this or find an engineering firm that has an appropriate tap to do it for you.

 

Nigel

[sj-bradley]

Yes, don't force them as this damages the thread on the ball joint.

 

I had the same experience and ended up taking them back to GBS so they could run the tap down the inside for me.

 

After that, they went in easily.

 

Simon.

[Shaft]

I've got a tap for them if you need to borrow one. The thread is M18 x 1.5.

[David S]

Same for me. Had to buy the correct tap and do them.

[Guest Hammy360]

GBS tapped mine when I went to pick my kit up

[Guest iank]

Thanks for the offers of the tap.

 

Sadly looks like I have damaged the thread on one of the wishbones so I'm gonna replace them both and get GBS to retap the replacements. Look like I decided something was wrong, just after the end 2 threads got mashed - taking the ball joint out has then damaged the threads in the wishbone.

 

Not been a good weekend for me this - that's 2 expensive mistakes in the same weekend.

 

Ian

[Shaft]

As a rule of thumb Ian, when assembling any threaded parts together, they should simply screw up by no more than hand pressure until its

time to tighten up. (Exceptions being Nyloc Nuts, Ovalised Lock Nuts etc).

 

If they don't there is a problem mate. In this instance powder coating, weld splatter, distortion after welding.

 

Always tap holes clean, check male threads for damage etc. Male threads can easily be fettled with a Swiss cut needle file or similar.

 

A guaranteed problem you will face are the threaded holes for the harnesses in the chassis. These will definitely require cleaning out with a 7/16th x 20 unf tap.

 

HTH,

 

Nick.

[sj-bradley]

I agree with the seat belt mounting points. GBS were helpful in tapping out those before the chassis was loaded into the van so they're pretty good with those ones.

 

Simon.

[Grim]

unless you've severely cross threaded them, i's just re-tap them if it were me. I can't see a problem with this? the loss of a couple of threads on such a large component isn't going to be the end of the world.

[Guest iank]

I thought about just retapping them - the problem is the 2 threads that are mashed are on the ball joint - looking at the damage they did when coming out again looks like they have flattened a lot of the thread inside the wish bone, so it doesn't look like theres not a lot of metal thickness left to recut the thread into.

 

The damage had to be on the way out 'cos the flattened threads are all the way to the front and I was able to screw the ball joint in by hand no problem for a long way.

 

For what the ball joints and new wishbones will cost I 'd rather do what I should have done first time and do it right (wont stop me telling myself I was being an impatient t*t)

[Guest grimbo]

silly question for you all are both the ball joints right hand thread?

 

thanks grimbo

[Guest mower man]

YES mine are any way mowerman

[sj-bradley]

Yes.

 

They cannot possibly unwind either as it is physically impossible to do so (unless the ball joint parts company with the stub axles, but you'd have a much bigger problem then )

 

Simon.

[Guest grimbo]

thank you

 

grimbo