Re: Steering Ball Joint Safety Warning

[Roger Furneaux]

Re: [mg-tabc] Steering Ball Joint Safety Warning These components are of course critical to the safety of both car and driver, and as such one would have thought that exhaustive testing of each batch was carried out. One big law suit could wipe Moss out, if the recent smoking billions are anything to go by. The man to tackle would be Chris Nowlan, Product Development Manager in Goleta (I don't have his email). He often comes across the pond to Silverstone so if he is here this year I will tackle him on this issue. BTW, having just this week received a parcel from Walpole containing both drag link and tie rod balls, I would like to be able to test them [b]before[/b] installation. Anybody got any ideas about how to do this? They are not cheap, $44.21 for the tie rod ball, $21.95 for the drag link one (but why the big difference?) oc[b]T[/b]agonally TCRoger

[quote] Malcom Taylor wrote: I had a similar, but not identical, problem several years ago. The problem was rapid and premature wear to edges of the hole in the track rod end casing after something like 1000 miles. I had the feeling that under the wrong conditions the ball could have 'popped-out' at any moment. Preferring safety to originality I replaced the rods and the ends with new rods and spherical bearings ("Rose joints") which are used by some racers. These have given trouble free service ever since. I obtained my bearings from Demontweeks (01978 664466) [u]mailto:sales@demon-tweeks.co.uk[/u] [u]mailto:sales@demon-tweeks.co.uk[/u]> . I expect that other bearing suppliers or motorsport houses will also supply these and other makes of spherical bearing. Shirley Mink wrote: An aquaintance recently replaced the tie rod end balls (Moss Part 261-260) on his TC. In less than 100 miles one broke at speed. Fortunately he was able to get stopped without further damage. When he started to make repairs, the other ball also broke off! It may be that these parts are part of a batch that was poorly manufactured or heat treated.

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