By Paul Krummenacker (12.145.208.11) on Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - 03:43 pm:

sigh... yet once again my Honda is letting me know that it really doesn't want to become a rally car.

after a summer of rallycrosses, a TSD rally or two and daily commuting, my front ball joints are really worn out an sloppy.

the facts: '81 Honda Accord
the part: front control arms with ball joints on the end.

replacement control arms are $45ea which isn't a HUGE cost, but it's kinda anoying that they just don't seem to last any better. I'm afraid that if they wear out with just rallycrosses and commuting, what will happen after a few stages of REAL rally??

what are other people doing to beef up your ball joints? or is that just a weak part for any car and I should just suck it up and keep throwing them in the car as needed.

ideally I'd like to find some what that I could easily just unbolt the ball joint and bolt in a new one rather than having to replace the whole control arm or having to press out and press in a new joint.

Or I'm wondering if I could just weld in a hemispherical joint and bolt it up through the steering knuckle thereby eliminating the whole balljoint assembly.

any ideas? what do you guys do? or am I just being a big baby?

thanks, again...
Paul

By erol (205.188.200.202) on Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - 11:22 pm:

waa waa waaaa........ (gotcha to look) I think that 'making' another balljoint fit would screw with the geometry a bit. How many 'miles' do yours last? Do you grease them often? It would take days to look for a joint with the same taper to 'adapt' to the lower arm. I remember getting some new from JC whitney. for about the price you said, but wow the diference! ...Hey paul, I'm working on getting a 80 accord 4dr. If they're the same I'll save them for you. Mail me for something else!

By Adrian (Civicguru) (203.42.97.227) on Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - 11:43 pm:

Replacing the ball joints isn't that hard...
When I modified my lower control arms some time ago I replaced the ball joints with replacable ones. I went to a parts place that had a good stock of different ball joints and the guys there were good enough to let me hunt through them. I took along an upright so I could try them out. There were plenty that fitted (it's a standard taper). I ended up with some from a Mazda something-or-other (I think) that screw in (and are greasable, unlike the Honda ones). I had a ring made up with the right thread in it, cut the old ball joints out, welded the rings in and screwed the new ball joints in. I also found press in ones that would have worked (I'd probably get that type if I did it again).
If you don't want to go to all that trouble then you can get your balljoints reconditioned. There are places around here that drill a hole in the bottom and inject some kind of nylon into it ... apparently works quite well, though for how long I don't know.