atb
steve
could anyone tell us if mk 2 astra bottom ball joints will fit straight into the taper of the sierra front hub
I cant see any reason why anyone would of wanted to try it... seems a bit odd tbh.
I would say go to a breakers and try, i'm sure sierra and astras would be easy to locate.
If i had an astra to hand.. i'd try for ya !
[Edited on 2/12/03 by Ben_Copeland]
this ones been brought up before but IIRC never actually settled and confirmed. Would be good to know. The age old debate on balljoint loading applies though!
it does
i'm using them as is kingr
i even used engineers blue in the taper to check the fit on the ball joint and its a perfect fit.
Tim
Yup, I'm using them. Take a look in my photo archive - there's quite a few pics of my front suspension in there. I can take more if you
would like, just give me a shout.
Kingr
looks tidy! i'd've done it myself had i know it would work. one for next time i guess!
quote:
Originally posted by Ben_Copeland
I cant see any reason why anyone would of wanted to try it... seems a bit odd tbh.
[Edited on 2/12/03 by Ben_Copeland]
I to have used the astra balljoint, however now fitted I am starting to be concerned about the chances of the cast joint snaping under load, A I right in thinking the forces will be trying to rip the joint upwards.
this one has been discussed a while ago. Though it is true the loading is different, as on an astra it isnt load bearing, it has been suggested that
ball joints in general arent the weak spot. Mark Allanson posted pics of a crash once where the wishbone was bent and snapped but the ball joint was
still firmly in the hub.
If you use inboard shockers of one design or another then you can make the top of the hub the load bearing part.
and then the transit top joint snaps
atb
steve
I can't forsee any problems - There are likely to be forces acting on the ball joint primarily in two directions - vertically (when a force on
the tyre cause it to move upwards, transfering force through the ball joint, to the upper wishbone and from there into the shock) and parallel to the
ground, perpendicular to the direction of travel (when cornering - the inertia of the car tries to resist a change in direction while the tyres try
to actuate the change). Both of these forces are present in the ball joint's role in the original car (provided it has an anti roll bar - I
don't know for certain, but the chances of it not are negligable). Add into this that my car is likely to weight around half of the orginal
vehicle and that the astra will have a weight distribution heavily biased towards the front, whereas it's not unknown for BECs to have a rearward
weight bias, and I think it's fair to say, it'll do the job.
Kingr
I agree with kingr, the images I posted a while back were only a sample, I could post shots every day of Mac Strut balljoints that have survived MASSIVE loads and other parts of the suspension have snapped, bent collapsed etc