As part of the rebuild o my Locost I decided to replace my rather old and slightly tired lower front ball joints.
I did a lot of seaching and reading on here and other sites and concluded that I should go for QH ones due to their construction being better for the application (or perhaps miss-application) in question. The demise of QH didn't make my search an easy one with every factor saying "they've gone bust" (what and all their existing stock has dissapeared??) but did eventually find a pair.
What I failed to understand in my research was that at some point QH stopped making the ball joints using the 'pressed in from underneath' approach in favour on the 'pressed in from above' method as per most, if not all other manufacturers. So when my new balljoints arrived this morning I was rather dissapointed to see they had domed bottoms, as per the 'pressed in from above' type. In retrospect what i was really looking for was NOS from QH. The following pic shows one of my existing joints, from around 1997, and a new one:
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QSJ602S [/img]
I have read enough speculation and theory regardig these joints to cause me concern. What I am yet to grasp, however, is the scale a nature of the problem. How many have failed and was this gradual or sudden?
I suppose what i really want to know is can i use my new joints safely or should I keep looking?
Rich