Ball joint brands

[Valencia]

Yeah couldnt let them go Byron

[wbute]

Ball joints have been letting go forever so I really don't think the Holden ones were any good either. They generally only let go at low speed though.

[Big Rob]

TRW made the originals. I worked for them back in the late 70's and actually made a hell of a lot of OEM tie-rods and ball joints for Holden, Ford and a few other manufacturers. The name they were sold under was "DuFor" (Durable Forging).

I remember the tolerances were pretty small..... under 1 thou.

We made so many engine and suspension bits back then..... It's all gone now and we get to buy Asian crap.

Sad.

[SLR_dave]

1 thou is a pretty reasonable tolererance for a manufacturing standard I would imagine for a tie rod ball joint! But I also agree todays TRW tie rod ends have no grease nipples. What to do with that? Trust them? I dunno, lots of Japanease cars (including Toyota) have no grease nipples on the tie rod ends, they seem to rely on the joint sealing till end life (check every 10,000?). Hmmmn. The only TRW issue I ever had was with Torana steering rack, and it didn't fail, it just wore out.

[HK1837]

Ball joints have been letting go forever so I really don't think the Holden ones were any good either. They generally only let go at low speed though.

True, but in NSW they get checked every rego. Originals last 20+ years if greased regularly. Aftermarket ones I've seen fail after 2 years and no evidence of wear.