Ball joints

[Guinney1971]

OMG Rissy, talk about 11th hour problems!

Hope you get it all sorted and you can come down in Lex, but either way it will be great to see you and your good lady next week.

[Rissy]

LEX's new front lower ball joints have arrived. a HUGE thanks to Ed at DMC Europe for such a fast delivery. Got LEX booked in for Tuesday morning again. Will be most of the day getting her "hopefully" past her M.O.T - second attempt after the ball joints have been replaced (minimum of the one side, but possibly both sides depending on time) also, handbrake adjustment for the right-hand rear wheel, to make it....erm......work! headlight adjustment for angle, and last but definitely NOT least, the welding i'm going to have to have done to the engine cradle section of the chassis. I think i might smother that whole area in underseal when i get the car back, to try and stop any more degrading of the chassis round there, especially since it looks as though LEX will be getting wet on the way down the road on Wednesday! Thoughts on this anyone?

[Stuart Rees]

Handbrake adjustment is straight forward, there's a screw (with a split pin holding it) on the caliper to make the adjustment, just check that the pads are in there :? and they have some meat left on them!
How bads the rust?
Fingers crossed mate.

[Emagine]

Just a bit of an update..... I'll be quick but I'll come back with more detail in the week (once work calms down)

I had my ball joint fail again! Same side!!!!! Exactly the same component failure as the one I had back in August 2006.
This is so very strange. Again, luckily I was just turning into a petrol station so it happened at low speed.

I was actually just on my way to take "maddie" to Chris Nicolson as well.

I'll post some pics and more detail when I know more.

Strange how this thread popped up again and then mine failed again today.

Maddie is now back on the drive looking a bit sorry for herself.

Keep an eye on those ball joint people!

[Chris Williams]

Hi Stuart,
Long time no speak! cant believe your only down the road as well! Thats really bad about the ball joint, Any idea on the mileage that this one had done? Who's doing it this time ChrisN?
Catch up with you soon.

Chris

[JamesRGUK]

There has been alot of chat about problems with some 'new' ball joints in the USA, there are known problems with the replacement ball joints available from some vendors.

It's all a little cloak and dagger at the moment as no one quite know which ball joints to use as replacements.

Fortunatly the ball joints are only likly to fail when manouvering on full steering lock at low speed, although that's not terribly helpful to know.

Search the DMCTalk.com forum for ball joints as there has been a lot os discussion on there and it may point you to the best place to get replacements from.

James

[Guinney1971]

this is a bit worrying Stu, glad you are ok, but poor old Maddie

James, anychance you can post a link up to save trawling through the
forums? Thanks

[dmc4087]

Herveys joints seem like the best replacements to me in terms of quality and cost

[Guinney1971]

Hiya Thomas, long time no speak - hows things?

John Hervey does do some nice stuff, not always cheap though, but if it
works.....

[dmc4087]

Pretty good Claire, yourself?

Yea some of his things I'm not a fan of, but I recently used his balljoints during my frame off and they seem great (not a chance I was going near Houston ones!)

[Chris Williams]

http://www.dmctalk.com/showthread.php?t ... all+joints
This is one of them, myself I have SpecialT's ones in reinforced arms and these seem to fit fine. I think DaveH still sells them as well, not sure if they are proper DMC origionals, you would have to ask him.
Chris

[Guinney1971]

thats interesting to know then.

When mine come to be replaced I'll be putting an order into Mr Hervey then

I'm good Thomas, finding motherhood alot harder then the day job, but really
enjoying it

[Emagine]

Evening all....

Well I can add more detail now.

The ball joint was only about 4 years old and had done just 4,000 maximum (probably a lot less)
I believe it was a DMC Europe one.

here's a few shots of the failed part and the recovery















as you can see it sheared on the thread itself

I'm now going to look at replacing them with the SpecialTauto ones and get replacement lower control arms as this one has taken quite a bashing from falling onto the wheel rim in the failure

And yes Chris, it has been a looooooong time. Sorry I haven't really been that active of late. Work, a new house and MR2 Championship racing has sort of distracted me from all things Delorean. But Maddie is still the love of my life (shhhhh! don't tell Liz) so I'm planning on getting a few jobs done on her now (Maddie, not Liz )

[Guinney1971]

bloody hell Stuart, that could have been so much worse if you'd been going at any speed Thank God you were going slow.

Perhaps you could keep this thread going (and maybe a bit for the mag for the benefit of those not online?) with the repair updates and how the SpecialT Auto ones compare to the old ones.

Good luck with it mate, hope you get it sorted ok.

[Chris Williams]

Hi Stuart
Thats interesting, really it's such a small mileage in the great scheme of things for it to have failed again. When you look at the pictures from 4 years ago and this time it 'looks' like it failed in an identical place on the 'shaft'. Be interesting to know who's ball joints were fitted DMCH's or Ed's own version. (or perhaps it's just all those speed humps in Ware :lol: ) I know it's no help but this is not uncommon even on modern cars. I often go out to cars that have lower ball joint failure, not that I can do anything about it :roll: at the roadside. I have always thought that the pressure of people turning the (power) steering when they are not moving puts to much pressure on the ball joints. This is my theory as the ones I see are nearly always at road junctions.
Chris