Top Ball Joint

[Paul S]

I think the top front  ball joint  is from a triumph. I will look into this and post more information as a find out.

[Enright]

I have been experiencing occasional tramlining, slightly vague steering and the odd clonk at parking speeds. Then I found excessive wear on the inside edge of my front nearside tyre.

I thought that I had narrowed the cause of this down to some play in the top front wishbone bushes. However, having been in touch with SJ today, they seemed to think that it could also be the upper ball-joint instead. Unfortunately they also said that they hadn't seen any of these from Lotus for about 5 years.

Now I didn't consider ball-joints to be a consumable, especially if they are obsolete and unavailable anyway. But if they do wear out, then this is particularly concerning, as an MOT failure for such a simple part could render the car unroadworthy.

It MAY not be a problem - the average garage should quickly be capable of telling me if my suspension bushes diagnosis was correct. So that is my first port of call, but meanwhile, what experience has anyone had of front suspension rebuilds, and especially part availability?

[chris.t]

try SW Lotus they did have them (think i saw them at Stoneleigh). But my mate thinks they are identical to the ones on a triumph 3000 gt (or something like that).

[ZM]

Hi

It seems like the Triumph Spitfire, Herald and 3000gt use the same balljoint. This one looks very much like the ELAN M100 has can anyone confirm it.

[chris.t]

i got some herald ones in to look at and they are different much smaller