Help re: the ball joint on the anti-roll bar

[m100sandra]

Since getting the Elan back from mapping late last year I haven't been using it, but on the last run out I did notice a loud clunk when I drove over a (Minor) pot-hole, My son had a look Yesterday and found the ball joint at the end of the anti roll bar had come apart , its back together now and looks all OK, Any thoughts with this happening

[rip]

I suspect it may have popped out due to excessive wear. If so, it is likely to pop out again.
I am not sure if the parts are still available but mine needed to be cut apart when Nitron fitted my suspension so an alternative solution was created with bolts & rose joints.

[dapinky]

Sandra,

this seems to be a common(ish) problem.....

...New ones are available for a bargain price of about a hundred quid (once you've added the VAT and postage to the Lotus price)

SJ's do an 'alternative' part for £40

But i made my own up from bolts, washers and rod-ends.... about a tenner a side

To avoid having to type everything out again, I have reproduced here the contents of a PM i sent to Jeemy when he had the same issue - it explains the principles involved, and links to the common parts.

Yep, those ball-joints do have a habit of disolving when you dismantle the unit - I think it's all part of the Lotus plan to avoid bankruptcy - sell 'em something which we can charge a small fortune for replacing.....

...anyway, when I didn't want to play their game, I did it my way.

I don't actually have any of the ball joints here (but they are easily availlable) - but the bolts of the correct length and 'hardness' are the difficult bits to buy - I looked for about 2 months and ended up getting them from Germany - hence I bought 10, not just the 2 which I needed.

I've put 2 bolts, 12 stainless washers (6 for each 'spacer'), another washer for the protruding end, and some new nylock nuts in the envelope. Also I've put a couple of extra washers/nylocks for the rod end (where it goes through the track rod) in the package for you as I had them in my 'left over' box.

All you need to complete the project is a pair of M12 male rod ends which are common enough to buy locally, but can be got from McGill Motorsports in Fife if you want to.

I used the 'high performance' ones - these ones....

....but they also do cheaper ones a couple of quid less which are more than enough for the job (but I already had the others lying around).

The slightly dearer ones are 'better' items (ptfe liner, not bronze), but are probably extreme overkill for this use as there are no great shock loads applied here - the OE ones were only a steel ball in a plastic housing anyway and they have lasted for 20+ years.

Fitting is easy enough, but you will need to drill out the track rod hole to 12mm (it is currently 10mm - but mine were worn to about 11mm).

Assembly is just sliding the new rod end onto the bolt, then use 6 washers, then slide it through the shock absorber yoke/lower wishbone (from the front of the car), stick another washer on it, and then the new nylock nut.

You will see that there seems to be too much of the threaded part of the bolt sticking out (ideally it should be a 150mm bolt, not the 160 i bought), but there is a reason for that....

...a 'standard' DIN specification 150mm bolt has 36mm of threaded portion, and 114mm of plain shank - this leaves quite a bit of threaded portion in a load-bearing situation inside the yoke/wishbone...

...by using a 160mm bolt, there is an extra 10mm of plain shank, so the yoke bears on the unthreaded part and there is less chance of wear/movement in the unit.

You have the choice of either cutting 10mm off the threaded end, or just leaving it - there is no right or wrong to this, it depends if you are worried about saving a few grams of weight, and leaving it a bit tidier - but remember that if you cut it, you will have an end which is not zinc coated so is more liable to get rusty. I ended up cutting it and just dabbing a bit of paint on the end after assembly.

Having assembled the main bolt, just slide the track rod down over the rod end (okay, 'slide' may be a bit of a simplification, it will probably need to be pushed/pulled/levered quite firmly), put on a washer and new nylock. To tighten it up, use a 13mm open-ended spanner to hold the body at the right angle (perpendicular to the main bolt), and torque the nut down - job done!

I can't add a picture to a PM, but if you look on the castor shim thread here i put a picture up to show the shims to Franck, and the rod end can be seen in that one (when that picture was taken I was temporarily using a 150mm bolt without a 'flanged' head, but that has now been replaced with the proper ones, once I had sourced them)

It is possible to get really cheap rod ends (for about 3 or 4 quid), but whilst I'm sure that they would be strong enough for this particular use, I'm equally unsure that, at that price, they would be particularly rust-resistant as they need to save money somewhere, and it would start with material specification & the zinc coating thickness. I use the ones from McGill for my competition cars, and I've never had a failure yet, and none have gone rusty.

front suspension.jpg

I still have a few of the correct bolts here if you want me to send you a pair - then all you'll need are a few washers and the rod-ends as linked to in the above text.

[GeoffSmith]

Was it really only a tenner a side Dave?

[dapinky]

Well, to be honest, it could be done for a tenner a side, but by using the best quality rod-ends, it does go up a couple of quid!..

...£25 for both sides (albeit that I had the washers already in stock) - basically, it's a bolt, a rod-end, 2 nylock nuts and 9 washers each side - I suppose you could fit one of those rubber boots to the rod end to protect it a bit (about an extra £4), but if you use good quality components, not really necessary.

[par]

Dave,

Bit of a thread revival but do you have the source of the long bolts need for this method or the spec?

I seem to have popped a ball out when dismantling my suspension and this seems a good engineered solution rather than shelling out for new ones.

[lotusflasherman]

seem to have popped a ball out

The very thought makes my eyes water...

[dapinky]

Par,

there is bad news and good news on this question.....

....the bad news is that it took me a hell of a long time to locate suitable bolts, and they had to be ordered from abroad in the end as there were no UK stockist for the correct items (that I could find).

The slightly better news is that I still have the specification details of the required items..... They are 12.9 grade steel bolts, M12 thread, DIN 912, 160mm length. (as stated earlier, they appear to be too long, but the unthreaded portion of the bolt is the correct length as DIN 912 specifies 36mm threaded portion for M12 bolts - thus the plain bit is 124mm, and you can trim the length if you wish to.)

Even better news (for you, but not necessarily for me!) is that suitable items now appear to be easilly availlable over here

Falcon Services are one of my 2 suppliers of choice for any fastenings, and they trade as "massiveattack007" on ebay - they are listing them for £4.30 a pair
ebay link.

You will need 4 x M12 nylock nuts for the whole job, and 18 x 'Form A' M12 washers (I used Stainless as I bought huge bags of them when I did the whole rebuild, but if you need to buy them, then there are plenty of suppliers on ebay if you have nothing local. Same seller on ebay has a bag of 25 washers for £2.85, and 10 nylock nuts for £3.95.

If you want to try to save a bit of money, it is worth giving them a ring - all the ebay prices include delivery (their service has always been excellent), so they are charging you for 3 lots of delivery for one package - the nuts etc cost only pennies each, and I have always managed to get extra stuff thrown into the parcel (albeit that i was ordering 10 or 20 different items, so the postage was a bit more significant than with just 3 items) - probably not worth the worry, unless you decide to replace other items whilst you're in there (Yep - I know exactly how it works - I spent a fortune on new nuts and bolts, but at least they'll come apart when I want them to!!!!)!

The rod ends i use are still on ebayfor £9.25 each, including delivery, but as the seller is in Dunnikier Business Park Kirkcaldy, KY1 3LW it may be easier to drop in - I don't know how close they are, as I don't know the exact geography of Fife!!!

[par]

Dave - thank you for taking the time to put together such a thorough response. I have only been on the forum a year but feel like I have had the benefit of many years of experience due to the willingness of yourself and others to share your knowledge and wisdom.

Kirkcaldy isnt too far from me in Fife so will probably pop in there for the joints. The saving over the £40 replacements from SJS will allow me to put together a shopping list of stainless fasteners, as like you I dont want to have to resort to the dremel every time I need to remove something!

[dapinky]

For what it's worth, here is a 'shopping list' for what i bought - I spent quite a while cross referencing from the parts guide to get the sizes required....

suspension bolts replacement.pdf

This isn't an exhaustive list, as it doesn't include nuts and washers (except where the threads are different to 'standard' nuts!) as I bought them in quantity!

IMPORTANT NOTE - where my list refers to A4, it means that I used Stainless steel bolts, but they were A4-80 tensile, NOT the standard -70 tensile that A2 and most A4 are made from!!!! - the washers and nuts are fine with A2, as A4 is Marine quality, but with all the salt on the Scottish roads, you may want to use them anyway.

Any 'non-structural' bolts can be replaced with the cheaper A2 stainless to make future work far easier.

Also, torque figures need to be adjusted as Stainless requires less torque than steel to achieve the same 'stretch' - basically, the numbers need to be reduced by 25%....

these are the numbers you will need to use for any A4 bolts....

suspension settings.pdf

[John_W]

Dave,
Thanks - I'm making a bookmark on this one!
John