[Tigers] WARNING - ball joints

[Tony Somebody]

Theo- Out of curiosity and to make it clear to anyone not understanding----
the ball joint I'm seeing in my mind has a thin piece or metal that acts as a
sealing cover and a place to install a grease zerk. On your B.Joints the hole
was drilled but since the metal is thin, you didn't have to tap the hole, just
use the correct diameter zerk...?
Ive had suspension parts come with the hole and no zerk but they where
floating loosely in the carton or plastic bag. Going back in time things where
more apt to have went down a better assembly line but as things "improved" and
moved to China and Mexico, the zerks could have been left out intentionally or
with no one caring if they where added or not- maybe the stock room was out
that day. THAT thought bears no reflection on where Theo purchased his parts.
TtT
--- On Sat, 10/10/09, Smit, Theo <Theo.Smit at dynastream.com> wrote:

> From: Smit, Theo <Theo.Smit at dynastream.com>
> Subject: Re: [Tigers] WARNING - ball joints
> To: "michael king" <michael.s.king at gmail.com>, "Tiger Talk List Tiger"
<tigers at autox.team.net>
> Date: Saturday, October 10, 2009, 11:08 AM
> You mean the ball joints had a hole
> for a grease nipple but no nipple
> installed, or they didn't have a hole at all? I've seen tie
> rod ends without a
> hole but never a ball joint...
>
> The balljoints I got from Rick had the hole but no zerk
> fittings installed.
> Bought some, threaded them in, and pumped the balljoints
> full of grease until
> the boots were full. I don't know if they had anything
> other than assembly
> lube in them beforehand.
> Theo
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tigers-bounces at autox.team.net
> on behalf of michael king
> Sent: Fri 10/9/2009 4:26 PM
> To: Tiger Talk List Tiger
> Subject: [Tigers] WARNING - ball joints
>
> When i purchased my Tiger in 2007 the front end had been
> rebuild with all
> new parts by a well known USA Sunbeam expert. I believe
> this work was done
> around 2003. I noticed the steering on the car was very
> heavy and slow to
> self centre. I accepted this as a Tiger thing and let it
> go. After a few
> more months i decided that it was just a bit to slow, maybe
> i had to much
> toe in or the alignment was bad. As it turned out i had a
> faulty set of
> lower ball joints. They had never had any grease in them
> and they had no
> grease nipple. They were seizing with rust.
>
> Recently a friend who has restored his car noticed the
> steering had become
> increasingly heavy, we discussed ths and i mentioned the
> ball joints, he
> restored his car starting in about 1997 and finshing around
> 2007. He had
> bought the ball joints in about 2000.. as it turns out he
> had the same
> issue. If you have lower ball joints you bought between
> 1999-2004 and the do
> not have grease nipples on them peel the boots back and
> ensure they have
> grease in there, this could cause a serious accident if
> they seize on you.
>
> Hope this helps some people out there.
>
> --
> Regards
>
> Michael King
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