4000Q ball joint woes.

[james accordino]

The ball joint slot can hammer away at the bolt shank
that holds it tight to the steering knuckle or strut
housing casting.  Although compression plays a part,
the bolt shank is the primary holding fixture in this
setup.  The groove of the ball joint stud is held in
by the bolt shank.  If this wears away on either
component to allow passage of the stud, the suspension
comes unfastened.  Or CAN come unfastened.  Not good.
Like exploding brake rotors.  Almost.

Jim Accordino

--- Marc Swanson <mswanson at sonitrol.net> wrote:
>
> > I'm confused at what the stainless nut contributed
> to the problem.
> > Did the nut back off?
>
>
> no, that wasn't the issue.
>
> The ball joint pops into the bottom of the strut.
> The bolt that clamps
> the bottom of the strut normally has an unthreaded
> portion that the ball
> joint 'lip' rests on.  I got careless and replaced
> that bolt with a
> fully threaded stainless bolt.  Had I used a
> partially threaded
> stainless bolt that mirrored the OE bolt (or the OE
> bolt itself of
> course) everything would have been fine.  The
> failure came about because
> the threads that were touching the lip on the ball
> joint wore away at
> that surface over time until it was worn down enough
> to slide right past
> the retaining bolt.
>
> --
> -Marc
> 87' 4ktq
> 88' 90q
> www.mswanson.com/audi
>


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