Updated links for heim joints?

[Big Rich]

My spiderbox has the original ball joints and mounting tabs on the front a arms, and I've been exploring my options. I'd prefer to go with heim joints over the BD ball joints but most of the links I've found are basically "Go with 2 of these, 4 of those, and a couple of these.". Problem is, all those ebay links are so old that they are dead now..... Can anybody give me a definitive list of stuff that I could use? I found these on ebay but not sure if they are my best option, and what else I might need.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/171335488896...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Thanks for the help fellas!

[ckau]

An updated link to what you need http://www.ebay.com/itm/Economy-1-2-...lUh2Ph&vxp=mtr

Don't let the word economy scare you .It's a excelent quality unit and plenty strong enough. Iv'e never had a heim failure with these. The A-arm will rip off before the heim fails. lol! QS components is a excellent company to deal with. They have every thing you need.


Advice: Order all the heims and bungs with right hand threads. Your not needing left hand as your not using them to adjust length of a track bar or pan head. The heat from the welding process distorts the bung threads The bungs need to chased with a starter tap after being welded in or you run a big chance of stripping them out. Right hand 1/2-20 taps are a dime a dozen. left hand taps can be difficult to find and normaly a special order. Keeping everything right hand just makes life easier.

[OLDKID]

I know it's a popular mod , but in my opinion great if you were fabing up a arms from scratch with HEAVY wall chome moly . On stock thin wall mild steel a arms I can't see the benefit , surface area is reduced down to the diameter of the bung , and don't forget you're gonna be drilling through the back side of the tube for the threaded end to protude . My opinion : Reinforced tabs and good ball joints are better . More and broader surface area to distribute the work load . If riding hard enough to rip a tab off I think the arm will fail where drilled and bung welded in . Thin tubing !

[OLDKID]

Personally never ran across a tab torn off ...yet , though I've seen the norm seems to be the stock balljoints with the rolled steel retainer ( not the replacements with the E clip ) pulling through the mounting hole . I run the HEAVY DUTY joints on stock tabs / no reinforcement , and never have had a failure , despite BoneHeads running wheels into trees , boulders , etc. Have had to straighten , and reweld spindles from such , but the flimsy stock tabs have never taken the hit , YET ...

[Big Rich]

Perfect! Thanks ckau - not just for this one link, but for all the great info you post. The past couple weeks I've been trying to research as much as possible, and your name comes up a LOT!

[ckau]

Originally Posted by OLDKID

I know it's a popular mod , but in my opinion great if you were fabing up a arms from scratch with HEAVY wall chome moly . On stock thin wall mild steel a arms I can't see the benefit , surface area is reduced down to the diameter of the bung , and don't forget you're gonna be drilling through the back side of the tube for the threaded end to protude . My opinion : Reinforced tabs and good ball joints are better . More and broader surface area to distribute the work load . If riding hard enough to rip a tab off I think the arm will fail where drilled and bung welded in . Thin tubing !

I got to differ with you on this one. Until you experience the difference you won't appreciate this conversion. A day and night difference. All the problematic issues associated with the yerf ball joint system are eliminated such as tracking, holding alignment, camber, along with adding strength and dependability. Ball joints are a traditional method and have proved dependable in countless applications but in this particular instance there is no such creature. I've built over a dozen sets for folks through the years with zero failures. My first set is over 10 years old going strong.

If the bungs are welded in correctly it becomes the strongest link in the system.
The first pic shows the bung in a piece of tube inserted into the end of the drilled A-arm. The second is the finished product. notice the inside of the A-arm is boxed.

[OLDKID]

Well , in your case , Holy Sanitary Job Batman ! That is strong with the fishmouth cuts ( hole saw ) , endwise tube , and boxed radius , ( I imagine you probably tig'd it too ) . In my previous post I was visualizing pictures I've seen in the past where somebody merely drilled all the way through , and welded shallow bung only on the outer side of tube , because it didn't protrude through to the other side , ( let alone the tube you added ) all bugered up with their crappy flux core welder . In this case I'd have to rule with the Heim's if done to your level of quality and engineering .

[x-bird]

.058 wall cro-mo a-arms with the tubing mitered right to the bung on the spindle end, no real need for the sleeve tube. Wouldn't trade my heims for ball joints, ever. going on 5 seasons of racing with no heim failures. 1 season of recreational riding = 2 ball joint failures (new ones no less).

[xlint89]

I have to say, Ckau set me up with the heims and they are holding up great. Even the HD ball joints didn't seem very HD compared to the heims.

I've ran into many 6" curbs atspeed with them and have not had an issue with them yet.

Plus the adjustability for personal set up is an added bonus