Greetings all,
I have recently had trouble once again with the plastic ball joint fitting that regularly breaks on out wee little pandas with rod selectors...
So I thought, I'll fix this for good and bought myself a ball joint off the eeeebay like this one:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140795197185
Hacked off the original end taking note of the centre point of the ball joint (for positioning the replacement and welded on the new end:
All painted up it looks almost like it was meant to be...best part is the ball joint was pretty much the right size (with a little slop) but this is ok as there is a spring inside which ensures it is held in and a further clip (see left in the picture below) and a rubber protective boot to stop crud getting into the joint as well:
And fitted with lots of grease:
Job done. That's not going to wear out anytime soon I don't think :devil: The grease is held in nicely with the rubber protector boot that comes with the little ball joint.
I'll try to remember to report back after I get some miles on it (although this is the 4wd selector linkage so not going to get too much use really). Will likely need to do the same for the gear selector linkage though so can probably report back on that!
Hope this helps! Might consider making these for peeps as it doesn't take long and uses little resource (although the ball joint wasn't cheap as a one off purchase!!). But I think we wait to see how it goes first!
Cheers,
Si
I have recently had trouble once again with the plastic ball joint fitting that regularly breaks on out wee little pandas with rod selectors...
So I thought, I'll fix this for good and bought myself a ball joint off the eeeebay like this one:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140795197185
Hacked off the original end taking note of the centre point of the ball joint (for positioning the replacement and welded on the new end:
All painted up it looks almost like it was meant to be...best part is the ball joint was pretty much the right size (with a little slop) but this is ok as there is a spring inside which ensures it is held in and a further clip (see left in the picture below) and a rubber protective boot to stop crud getting into the joint as well:
And fitted with lots of grease:
Job done. That's not going to wear out anytime soon I don't think :devil: The grease is held in nicely with the rubber protector boot that comes with the little ball joint.
I'll try to remember to report back after I get some miles on it (although this is the 4wd selector linkage so not going to get too much use really). Will likely need to do the same for the gear selector linkage though so can probably report back on that!
Hope this helps! Might consider making these for peeps as it doesn't take long and uses little resource (although the ball joint wasn't cheap as a one off purchase!!). But I think we wait to see how it goes first!
Cheers,
Si
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